


喜欢你 【Like You】

by Xiumin_Jade



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Cute, Drunk Sex, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fluff, M/M, Minor Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Oh Sehun, Sex, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:16:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25633432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xiumin_Jade/pseuds/Xiumin_Jade
Summary: Minseok was fine with his lonely life, he loved his job and he thought he had had enough with his past relationships. But when Junmyeon one day asks him to help on of his students with his PhD Minseok is unable to say no. But when the really tall and handsome Chanyeol steps into his office on their first meeting Minseok realizes things would get complicated.
Relationships: Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to everyone!  
> First of all i want to thank my beta ryunick for helping me with all this mess.  
> Well, this story wasn't meant to be published like this... Actually I wrote this for a XiuYeol Fic Fest, but I got kicked out for wrong tagging and for not understanding correctly one of their rules.  
> This is not the same story anymore, as that prompt I can't use it anymore, but I changed it because I couldn't delate my 30k words of work, because english is not my first language and this story took me a lot of time and effort.  
> So... this story was inspired by the prompt: R3.066 of BingHuo Fest.  
> I hope y'all will like it!  
> The story has 10 chapters and has 31K words aproximatedly.  
> Please leave some Kudos and comments!  
> I will try to publish once a week unless my beta is unable to keep correcting the last parts.

_ “Your grasses up north are as blue as jade, _

_ Our mulberries here curve green-threaded branches; _

_ And at last you think of returning home, _

_ Now when my heart is almost broken.... _

_ O breeze of the spring, since I dare not know you, _

_ Why part the silk curtains by my bed?” _

300 Tang Poems. “In Spring” Li Bai

Minseok was comfortable with his job. Working as a teacher at university had been his dream job since he was 18 years old, so he was thrilled. He was a teacher everyone admired. He was sweet and caring with his students. He prepared his classes carefully and tried to make them as interesting as possible to his students. He didn’t go soft on them at all; he was demanding and graded everyone fairly. Minseok was also very appreciated in between teachers, because even when he was occupied, he took time to help everyone else.

Kim Junmyeon was the closest to Minseok, they worked on the same field. They both taught Asian Literature classes, but Minseok had two specialties, one in ancient literature, and one in literature in music. The two worked together, and they covered and helped the other, they developed that relationship and also became friends outside work.

One afternoon after classes they went together to have a coffee as they usually did. They talked a lot about their classes, how their students were making progress in their projects and how Minseok’s seminaries, for the mastery Minseok was helping with, were going. But at half conversation Junmyeon asked Minseok something.

“I know you rarely do this” Junmyeon started “But I want to ask you something, can you help a PhD student of mine?”

Minseok thought for a second about that, he rarely helped PhD students, the seminaries he was giving for the master, as help to another teacher, already took a lot of his time. And PhD students used to work on his own or with a group of teachers that were the ones that would grade his work. He had been a PhD student before, he had been there before. But if Junmyeon asked him for help it must be important, so Minseok decided to give it a try.

“If you think I can help your student” answered Minseok “Then I’ll do it gladly.”

“Thank you Minseok” Junmyeon said relieved “Park has been stuck on the same part of his thesis for already half a year and the other teachers don’t know what to do. As I’m one of his teachers I’m supposed to help him, but I’m going to the conferences next month and this part is one of your specialties”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help him.”

“This will be official, so he will be also your assistant on class, he was supposed to be mine before, but you know me”

“If he doesn’t want to be my assistant, I won’t force him” Minseok replied

“You’ll be teaching my class too; you need an assistant”

“I can manage on my own, if Park wants to be my assistant he can ask, I won’t force him” Minseok repeated “Stop plotting on my back, you know I work perfectly on my own”

Junmyeon stopped himself from answering knowing they would start and endless discussion about Minseok over working. And they started talking about the conferences Junmyeon and other teachers from University were going to give across Korea. Minseok had been also asked to go with them, but he didn’t want to miss any classes and he had still one more seminar for the master.

“What’s the last seminar about?” Asked Junmyeon “And I still don’t know why you are giving these seminars”.

“It’s about Tang Dynasty Poems” Minseok answered “Kyungsoo asked me to talk about the different poems in Chinese dynasties, I know a lot about them, though Tang Dynasty is more on your field. Kyungsoo helped me last year, it's a way to repay him.”

“Well, it’s the limit between the two of us” Junmyeon said with a soft laugh “We worked together on that last year”

“I still remember the faces of our students when we told them the set of conferences would be graded with a little project” Minseok laughed “And they were terrified when they saw how happy we were while talking about the subject”

“I won’t ever forget that” Junmyeon said “My students hated me, and I got a lot of complaints”

“I didn’t get any”

“Lucky you”

“Hey, about the student you want me to help” Minseok changed the subject “What’s he working on?”

“Oh! Yeah, he studied musicology, mastery on History of Music, and now he’s trying to analyze the music of some old Chinese poems and folklore songs. I thought you could help him with that, you analyzed most of the musical poems on ancient Chinese dynasties.”

“That’s a complicated subject” Minseok answered “There are so little records of the music back then… But I guess I can help him, I think I still have some sources and I can show him some examples”.

“Chanyeol is an incredible student” Junmyeon said proudly “And if you help him, he’ll do even better.”

The next week Minseok went through his old works to find something for the boy, Junmyeon had told him that Park Chanyeol was going to meet him at Minseok’s office the next Monday. He wanted to give him something to start with as soon as possible, because he knew they’ll be spending a lot of time going through hundreds of documents. Minseok didn’t think about telling Park to help him with the classes, in his opinion Park was better analyzing poems and working on his thesis than listening to him talking about Chinese literature.

Junmyeon left that afternoon to go to the conferences and Minseok alone at his flat thought about the boy he was about to meet. Minseok had a hidden passion for music, he once wanted to be an idol, or study music, but literature ended up becoming an even greater passion. He even went through the audition process for some companies, but he got rejected. He knew why, he was too fat back then to be chosen. They told him, not once but twice, to try again once he lost weight. But Minseok decided it was not worth the price, every time he looked at idols, he saw them all skinny and tired. And he knew, he would have gotten worn out of that life, and the chance to debut was too small.

He already admired the work Chanyeol was working on, those works were his favorites. To combine music and literature, his two passions, he wanted to do his own research on the subject too. He wanted to meet the boy, and see how far he had researched already, Minseok knew he would enjoy studying the subject again.

Next morning Minseok woke up tired, he went to bed late the previous night while preparing the classes and looking through the documents for Park. He got up and prepared some coffee, he filled a whole glass with the black drink and drank it slowly while grading some papers. He took a sip of his coffee and looked at the paper he was grading, his student had left a question blank, he sighed and wrote the answer in red, then, he looked at his clock, he had 10 minutes to leave if he wanted to arrive a bit earlier for his first class, so he collected his papers and put them in his briefcase. He had only one class that day, but a 3 hours long one. And then after lunch, a whole afternoon grading papers and the meeting with Park Chanyeol.

Minseok loved giving classes, and loved when his students interacted with him in class, so he prepared a lot of debates to make his classes more interactive, and gave them many external references in case they wanted to study something in depth. He always arrived to the class five minutes before to prepare the projector and computer. The class he was going to give that daywas one of the few he enjoyed explaining the most, but that didn’t make it easier for him, he was nervous. That day Junmyeon’s students were coming too as their teacher was absent, still, when the bell rang and the students got into the class, he was surprised by the number of students. The class was full, and it had almost a hundred seats.

Minseok calmed himself before silencing the class to start, he was used only to half of the students present, and he wished people would stay calm and not interrupt him.

“Silence” Someone said by the door and Minseok looked there and saw his friend Kyungsoo standing with a deathly glare to everyone “If you’re not interested in this class leave right now before I decide to expel anyone”

Minseok smiled and Kyungsoo went by his side to talk to him at a lower voice.

“Junmyeon called me and told me about this class” Kyungsoo explained “He said you maybe needed some help to keep everyone quiet, he said some of his students were a bit chaotic”

“Thank you” Minseok answered nervous “I could have controlled them thought, I do control my students every day”

“I know” Kyungsoo said smiling a little “I also wanted to hear you talk, as well as some mastery students that are sitting at the end of the classroom”

Minseok looked at the back and saw some older students with their computers prepared to take notes.

“You told them to take notes?” Minseok asked Kyungsoo surprised.

“Nope” Kyungsoo said looking at them too “But I guess they like your classes, and I don’t recognize some students on the right side at the back, so they might be here also to listen to you”

“Thank you Kyungsoo” Minseok turned to face his computer preparing the Power Point “This is helping me a lot to relax”

Kyungsoo laughed “I’ll be here beside you, I’ll sit here by the computer and help you with the slides, here I can see them better and control them”

“Looking at a student as if you were about to kill him is effective in the short term, but it may get back at you”

“They won’t even dare to look at me on the eyes” Kyungsoo added giving to all the class a death glare again because they started talking. “Start the class before I do start kicking people out”

Minseok laughed but looked at the class and started to talk. The class went smoothly and Kyungsoo only kicked out three students, all from Junmyeon’s group, without interrupting the class. At the end of the class, when there were only 10 minutes left, Minseok ended the monologue and asked.

“Are there any question?” Minseok said at a loud voice “Or is everything clear?”

Some students from the back raised his hands and Kyungsoo stood by Minseok, recognizing some of them as his students. Minseok pointed to one of them.

“Can we come to listen to other of your classes?” All the raised hands lowered and nodded at the guy who asked, as if they all wanted to ask the same question. Kyungsoo laughed beside Minseok.

“Yes, of course you can” Minseok answered when he snapped out of his amazement “Next class we will discuss the poems I told you about today, so please, everyone read them before the next class so we can have a good debate, unless you want to do a paper about them…”

Nobody dared to say anything, and a lot of the students nodded with force whispering about not wanting to do a paper.

“So, that’s how you scare them” Said Kyungsoo while taking all his things and turning off the computer “Now I want to know what do you ask for a paper to have them like that”

“It’s just an essay, but a complete one” Minseok answered watching all the students leave “They’re not really scared, it’s just that they still don’t understand how essays are supposed to be”

“I have an idea” Kyungsoo said with a grin “Let’s go have lunch and you explain to me what an essay must be like”.

They closed the classroom together and went to a restaurant nearby to have lunch. Minseok explained to Kyungsoo what he asked for in an essay, and the other teacher ended up agreeing with Minseok’s point of view. They ordered lunch and made small talk waiting for the food, then, they ate in silence, as they were used to.

“You know” Kyungsoo said once he ended eating “You should just teach for Master’s, your current students don’t appreciate what you’re teaching them, you’ll end up frustrated and without motivation”

“That won’t happen” Minseok answered “I love my classes”

“Do you have at least one student who researches further on anything you explain?” Kyungsoo asked raising an eyebrow

“Not right now, my boys are all preparing exams, they don’t have time” Minseok excused them.

“Do you have any final degree project to monitor?” Kyungsoo asked again.

“No…” Minseok sighed “I get what you mean, but hey, I’m doing just fine, I love the opportunity you gave me to talk in those seminars, but I don’t want to stop giving classes to my degree students. And before you start again, I’ll be helping from today onwards to a doctorate student, Junmyeon asked me to help a guy called Park Chanyeol, as Junmyeon can’t help him, I will be the one on charge.”

“Oh, Park!” Kyungsoo said surprised “I taught him at the master, he’s an incredible student”

“Jun told me the same” Minseok said “I do really look forward to work with him”

“When are you two meeting?” Kyungsoo asked and Minseok looked at his clock.

“In an hour at my office”

“Then I think we should go back” Kyungsoo said pulling out his wallet “I’m paying, I dragged you here after all”

Minseok kept his mouth closed even though he was about to complain, but he knew better than to go against Kyungsoo, his friend was the most stubborn person he had ever met. They walked slowly back to the university, with Kyungsoo complaining about the many papers he had still to grade, and some meetings with his final mastery project students. Minseok said goodbye to him just upon getting into the building, as their offices were on opposite sides, even though they were on the same floor. Minseok took the stairs at the end of the hallway, he had to climb three flights of stairs and then go to the end of the hall, his office was one of the last.

He took the key from his pocket and got into his office, closing his door behind him, and sitting in the chair. He took all the papers he had to grade out of his bag and started working right away, Park Chanyeol was supposed to be arriving at any moment, and as he didn’t know how much time they would spend in the meeting he preferred to start working now.

While looking at the papers he remembered the class he just taught and how the mastery students had been motivated, he couldn’t stop smiling. This was his favorite part of his job, when the students who listened to him enjoyed too, and learnt something. He looked at the wall in front of him, suddenly remembering Kyungsoo’s words. Maybe it was true he needed some interested students, not the degree ones he was teaching these years. But he couldn’t still decide to change, he loved teaching to new students, even if it was the same things every year, because he changed little details of the content every semester.

Yet, the seminaries he was giving to mastery students these days made him feel fulfilled, more than a whole year of classes. He had been giving classes for already six years, four of those as an assistant teacher, and two as titular, but all for degree students. He was somehow frustrated because he wanted to do research too, but with everything he had to prepare for his classes he had no time. He wasn’t one of those teachers who didn’t prepare his classes, he enjoyed preparing them. He also liked research a lot, and he thought he would have more time to research when he started teaching, but it was clear that it was not possible. To reach the highest level as professor he needed the research, but he wasn’t about to let the quality of his classes drop because of it, so it would have to wait.

At that moment he got a little faith about the help he was going to give to Park Chanyeol, the project itself looked interesting enough to keep his mind away of his little frustration. Minseok thought that this could feel like a challenge to him and then Kyungsoo’s words about changing his classes to mastery level would be kept on bay for a long time.

A little knock on the door made him snap out of his thoughts, he organized his papers in one side of his desk and then invited his guest to enter, he knew the kid must have arrived. He smiled with his sweetest smile and then watched the door open. He didn’t imagine the boy at all, well, the man. He was sure he was Park Chanyeol because he didn’t expect anyone else that afternoon on his office. The guy was tall, huge for someone like Minseok, he had to be two heads taller than him, his legs were very long, slightly crooked, his shoulders were broad, and he looked fit. And when he looked at his face he screamed internally, Park Chanyeol was really handsome and charming, his ears were the most striking at first sight, being large, but his face, in Minseok standards, was too attractive. His lips were like cherries and his eyes looked innocent and fearful for someone as big as him. His cheeks were flushed, and his skin looked too soft for Minseok’s mental health.

Then he regretted everything he thought before, this favor to Kim Junmyeon was a test to see how far his professional duty would hold while working with the type of man that filled all his filthy desires. Minseok was going to kill Junmyeon once he came back, he was sure this was a trap. He prayed to all the deities he knew so as not to end up doing something terribly embarrassing in front of the boy.

“Hi, welcome” Minseok stood up and said trying to not show how nervous he was, even if the boy was looking far more embarrassed than him and only looked at the floor “You must be Park Chanyeol, I’m Kim Minseok, it’s a pleasure to meet you”

“You’re welcome” Answered the boy and Minseok cursed internally, his voice was also his type, this was going to be hell for him “Please take care of me”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Today's the day for the second chapter, I'm thinking about updating twice a week or changing the day to Wednesdays at least cause Fridays are hell for me 😅  
> My beta ended all the corrections needed so I'll keep posting no stop for the next weeks!

_“Far in the skies is the Cowherd Star:_

_Bright on the Milky Way the Maid*_

_Lightly her snowy fingers raises_

_Jogging her shuttle through its mazes._

_But her stint of work is never-ending,_

_And her tears like sobbing showers descending._

_Though clear and shallow the Milky Way,_

_Never they'll meet for many a day._

_No word she says, but stares dismayed,_

_Alone by that surging River far.”_

Nineteen Old Poems (Eastern Han Dynasty)

Chanyeol cursed at low volume upon hanging the phone, Junmyeon was a friend of his family, and he really liked having him as a friend, but in this situation, he hated him. Chanyeol was terrible at talking with new people, that’s why he had always had the same group of friends. Even at university he had a lot of problems making new friends, he was awkward around strangers. And Junmyeon- _hyung_ just made an appointment with him and another random teacher he didn’t know, because Chanyeol had the bad idea of telling his parents that he was stuck on his thesis. And they told Junmyeon, who was one of his teacher. Now he was alone and getting lost in the language’s faculty looking for the office of some teacher called Kim Minseok who supposed to help him. Junmyeon just called him to wish him luck and tell him the name of the teacher and the place where the office was supposed to be. But Chanyeol was lost in the giant building, and the students in there rushed from one place to another and he was too shy to ask for directions. He kept going back and forward on the hallway trying to see where was the - _thing that looks like a mailbox but it’s full of bills_ \- that Junmyeon described to him. The only thing he had clear was that Junmyeon sucked at giving directions. When he was about to give up, he saw a familiar face near the stairs and run towards him, almost stumbling with the students there.

“Professor Do!” Chanyeol screamed watching his only hope about to go upstairs “Please wait a second”

The named stopped right before the stairs and looked back trying to identify the voice calling him, Chanyeol the got to him.

“Chanyeol?” Kyungsoo asked “Nice to see you again, what are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too professor” Chanyeol answered politely “I have a meeting with Professor Kim Minseok, but I don’t know where his office is, Junmyeon doesn’t know how to give directions, oh, sorry, I mean Professor Kim”

“Don’t worry Chanyeol” Kyungsoo said with a little smile “Neither me nor Junmyeon are your professors, you don’t need to be so formal with us, just call me by my name. And let me guide you to Minseok’s office, you’ll see it’s really easy to find.”

“Thank you profess- I mean Kyungsoo”

“That’s way better” Kyungsoo answered guiding him back to the principal hallway to the back side of the building “Minseok’s office and mine are in the same floor, but his is at the end, on the right side, and mine at the end of the left side, so it’s quicker if you take the stairs back here”

“Junmyeon told me I should take the stairs with the - _thing that looks like a mailbox but it’s full of bills_ \- but I saw nothing similar in this floor”

“Never trust Junmyeon with directions, neither references to places” Kyungsoo answered “That mailbox is in another building, he should have just told you to take the stairs on the back till the third floor then the left hallway almost till the end, just that.”

“I’ll make sure to remember that” Chanyeol answered, they walked in silence till the stairs “I think I can manage from here, I’m sorry to have bothered you Kyungsoo”

“You didn’t bother me” Kyungsoo answered “And we should meet sometime and have some drinks, I want to know how you’ve been doing, I’ve been trying to befriend you since you graduated and yet, you never hang with us when I’m there, only with Junmyeon.”

“Sure, _hyung_ ” Chanyeol said with a smile “I think you still have my number, right? Just talk to me, I will go out with you, as friends obviously.”

“Ha, ha, ha” Kyungsoo faked a laugh “As if I ever wanted to date you”

Chanyeol then went upstairs a little more confident now that he knew where he was going. The third floor was silent, so he made sure to walk slowly in order not to bother any other professor in their offices. Chanyeol remembered how much his professors back then hated people making noise near them. He still had nightmares with the screams of his “Music in the 18th century” professor when they laughed outside his office before a meeting.

He found the door with the plate “Professor Kim Minseok” easily but he didn’t knock immediately, he was nervous, he didn’t like meeting new people alone. He breathed deeply a few times then he knocked on the door. Chanyeol was looking at the floor when he opened the door but gathered enough courage to look at the man’s eyes in front of him.

Chanyeol wasn’t prepared to the situation at all, but he was even less prepared to the man in front of him. He noticed first his cat-shaped eyes, looking at him curiously, and then his little nose and his gummy smile, and his heart skipped a beat, he was cute, too cute. He saw him stand up and snapped of his thoughts.

“Hi, welcome” The professor told him smiling “You must be Park Chanyeol, I’m Kim Minseok, it’s a pleasure to meet you”

“Your welcome” Chanyeol answered, trying to control the tremble in his voice, this was going to be complicated “Please take care of me.”

“Please take a seat” Minseok told him pointing with his hand a chair in front of his desk “Junmyeon told me a little bit about your idea, but I would prefer to listen to the whole thing from you”

“Oh, yes, I’ll explain” Chanyeol answered sitting and tried to take all his papers out of his bag as fast as possible, almost dropping them on the floor because of the shake in his hands.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself, this was his project and this professor was only trying to help him, Minseok was Junmyeon’s friend, he was not going to laugh at him, or anything, just help him. He relaxed a bit then looked back at Minseok, who was still smiling at him, reassuringly, and then he filled his mind with all his ideas for his project and started to talk.

He talked by himself for ten minutes with no interruption, and then other 20 minutes with occasional questions from Minseok about little details and explanations. Minseok looked interested in the subject, more than Chanyeol expected when Junmyeon suggested the idea.

“I like your idea” Minseok told him when he finished speaking “I think I have some materials you could give a look at, and I think we can analyze them together”

“That would be perfect” Chanyeol answered “Thank you so much, I’m sorry to bother you”

“Oh, you’re not bothering me. I will enjoy this, the only thing it’s time… You only have half a year until you have to submit the first draft, and analyzing these poems and their music will take long… I brought here some poems, but I think I have at home some more suitable ones for what you’re looking at”

“I will do my best to do it quickly” Chanyeol said “You don’t have to analyze them all with me, I don’t want to make you lose that much time”

“Please, Mr. Park” Minseok answered with a smile “I do enjoy a lot these things, you won’t make me lose time, I will enjoy it, so let me help you analyze them, the music I won’t be able to analyze, but the poem itself is my expertise”

“It’s okay, thank you so much, again” Chanyeol said flustered “But please, call me Chanyeol, Mr. Park is my father, or me when I’m getting scolded, and also... There are a lot of Parks out there”

Chanyeol added a little smile, hoping the guy would accept, he didn’t normally answer to his surname, he had a lot of problems back then because of that. His teachers always ended up calling him by his name, it was not his fault that at least every year he met four or five Parks at school/university. And in his degree years, in his class, there were four other people with the same surname.

“Only if you call me Minseok, I know you’re with Junmyeon on first name basis too, and there are also hundreds of Kim’s out there”

“It’s okay… Minseok” Chanyeol answered smiling, and he watched Minseok look away with a little blush “Can we start today with what you brought? Or should I come other day?”

Chanyeol watched Minseok cheeks turning red and the man moving nervously looking for his bag, he wasn’t able to think of anything to make a man like Minseok blush, so he dismissed it from his mind and paid attention to the documents Minseok took out. All the documents were written with beautiful handwriting, slightly cursive, and neat.

“I copied these ones when I was preparing my own thesis, but at the end, this were musical poems so I wasn’t able to use them, I have also copied the music records, but I must say I don’t understand them”

“You know what instruments they used?” Chanyeol asked, his mind focused on the music sheets in front of him “And the tempo if possible, how did they divide the sentences and that things”

“Yeah, I guess I can search for the correct instrument on my files” Minseok said “The verses were divided into two, first part three words, last part two words...”

They continued analyzing the structure for the rest of the afternoon, Minseok explaining the meaning and form of the poem, and Chanyeol trying to fit the music in. Chanyeol found himself looking a lot at Minseok’s face and mostly to his lips and eyes. He found out Minseok had a tendency to bit his lip whenever he was thinking, and his eyes showed all his emotions, and Chanyeol found that mesmerizing.

“I think this is all we can do today” Minseok suddenly added after organizing his papers “It’s 9 p.m. and I think we have to rest, both of us.”

Chanyeol took out his phone and looked at the clock in the screen, Minseok was right, it was really late, time flew while analyzing just two poems. Chanyeol then knew this was going to be hard, really hard. He sighed and looked at Minseok, who was checking his phone and his timetable.

“I’ve kept you longer than expected” Chanyeol said “I’m sorry, I’m sure you have a lot of things to prepare for your other classes.”

“Nothing important, I always have things prepared” Minseok answered with a smile “I can just torture them with a surprise exam, the bad part of the idea is the amount of papers to grade, but I will make Junmyeon help me.”

Chanyeol laughed quietly, as much quiet as he could, so it was loud, but controlled, and watched Minseok smile again. He was relaxed with Minseok, something he never thought he would be, not after knowing him for only one day.

“As a former bachelor student, I must say you’re evil” Chanyeol added smiling and watched Minseok react laughing to his commentary. Chanyeol thought his laugh was also cute “But as a doctorate student I agree with you, they need to wake up and study.”

“Kyungsoo and Junmyeon were right” Minseok said then, looking directly into Chanyeol eyes “You’re a really good student.”

This time it was Chanyeol’s turn to blush, he didn’t expect that at all.

“Junmyeon and Kyungsoo were right about you too” Chanyeol answered “You’re a nice teacher.”

Minseok blushed and the two of them looked at each other flustered, then both started to laugh. Chanyeol then thought that, if this was going to be like this in every meeting, this would be like a fantasy. He maybe got distracted by the looks of Minseok, but Chanyeol knew his intellect was more than attractive to him.

“I guess I must go” Chanyeol said standing up and straightening his back “Next time more, and I hope better”

“Yes, you should rest” Minseok answered standing up too “But wait” Minseok took a little piece of paper from his desk and wrote something “This is my number, we should talk about when to meet again.”

“Yeah, you’re right” Chanyeol answered a bit stunned, taking the paper from Minseok’s hand and shoving it in his pocket, and then forced himself to answer before leaving the room “I’ll message you. Good night Minseok.”

“Good night Chanyeol” He heard Minseok say before closing the door.

Chanyeol tried to hold a squeal, he was not a fifteen-year-old girl who had just talked to her crush. But still he was happy, he had no expectations on this meeting, not good ones at least, he was sure he was going to become too nervous to talk. But he felt at ease around Minseok, the man calmed him, so he was able to be a little bit more confident, as he was around his friends. And he was learning a lot, even if they only analyzed two poems, Minseok had a way of explaining that made him understand the things quicker than he expected, and his voice was soft.

He walked outside the building smiling and thinking about ordering some food at home as a prize for his incredible day. He normally ate as healthy as a university student could eat, but he had his days off. Chanyeol made himself the promise to do an extra hour at the gym the next day. He continued walking, but when he was about to go to the bus stop, a voice stopped him.

“Chanyeol” he saw Kyungsoo a few meters away from him, near the parking lot “Going home just now?”

Chanyeol walked to him calmly, he felt happy, so even his nervousness around the intimidating professor Do Kyungsoo was gone. And also, he’d known the man for years, so even if he was still afraid of how intimidating the professor could be, he knew better than that. Kyungsoo was soft and liked to joke a lot, he was all bark and no bite.

“Yes, we just finished something” Chanyeol answered “It takes a lot longer than I expected. Minseok had to stop me after the second poem, it was too late.”

“Sure, is late, I’ll take you home” Kyungsoo said joking “I don’t want anyone to kidnap you, my lady.”

“I’ll accept only because I’m too lazy to wait to the bus and you don’t look tough enough to be a kidnapper, I’m taller than you.” Chanyeol said and then got into the car, still joking about Chanyeol being kidnapped even being that tall.

“So” Kyungsoo said when they were on the road “You call him Minseok already… I didn’t expect that.”

“You know I hate being called Mr. Park, there are too many Parks out there, so I asked him to call me Chanyeol, and he asked for the same.”

“But it took me till today to make you call me Kyungsoo, and I’ve known you longer than him.”

“You were my teacher.”

“I’m your friend, well, at least I try to be. He’s your teacher now, he’s the one helping you with your thesis, and you’re supposed to be his assistant on class.”

“He’s different.”

“How?”

“He’s too cute” Chanyeol answered without thinking “Shit.”

“Oh god” Kyungsoo answered, and stopped at the red traffic light, then looked at Chanyeol “I think I haven’t said it clearly enough, he’s your teacher”

“I… I don’t know why I said that” Chanyeol answered flustered and nervous “forget it, please.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this to my ex-student who is now a student of one of my friends...” Kyungsoo said moving the car on the green light “I don’t have any problem on you hitting on Minseok… just wait till you two stop working on this. You would lose everything you’ve worked on, the teachers who will test you will think everything was done by Minseok, and he could lose his job because he will protect you. And he’s my friend, he’s been my friend for years.”

“I’m not hitting on him” Chanyeol answered more nervous “Please, forget it, I don’t know him, I won’t ever date my teacher, I’m… no… no… just… No."

“It’s okay Chanyeol” Kyungsoo said “I won’t mention it again if you keep your liking to yourself. Now, tell me where to go or I’ll dump you in the nearest club.”

Chanyeol told Kyungsoo his address and stayed the rest of the time quiet in his seat, thinking. He couldn’t believe what he said. Yes, he had hit on guys like Minseok before, strong and cute at the same time, but it was different. With those guys he wasn’t risking anything as decisive as his thesis, in which he had been working for almost 5 years. This was his final stage to get it finished, so it wasn’t a good idea to hit on the teacher helping him.

“You won’t tell anything about that to Minseok, right?” Chanyeol asked in a quiet voice when they stopped in front of his apartment “I wasn’t thinking, I’m sorry”

“You don’t have to apologize for what you feel” Kyungsoo answered “First, I do think it’s too early to even consider that, not only because of the consequences, but because you don’t know each other. And second, I would never tell anyone anything you tell me without your consent, unless you were dying. We may not be best friends or anything, but I was serious when I told you I want to be your friend, a real friend.”

“Thank you Kyungsoo” Chanyeol said in a low voice “We should have those beers we talked about”

“Go to sleep Chanyeol, don’t overthink it, it’s too soon”

Chanyeol bid goodbye to Kyungsoo and got into his apartment. As soon as he entered, he was greeted by Sehun, his roommate, who was lying on the sofa watching TV.

“Hey Yeol, how did it go?” Sehun asked not even taking his eyes apart from the TV.

“Perfect” Chanyeol answered while taking off his shoes and then went to the kitchen to get the number of his favorite pizza restaurant “It’s harder than I thought but the teacher is great. I’m ordering some pizza, you want some?”

“Sure” He heard Sehun answer “While we’re waiting, tell me more about that teacher, is he as hot as Junmyeon?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry I published this chapter this late 😅 I promise I'll be more careful, I think I'll seriously start publishing on Wednesday to not forget again to publish...

_“Through the fields the livelong day_

_Mulberry pickers idly stray._

_There is nothing here to do,_

_Let me go away with you.”_

“Hard Times” (a fragment) State of Wei.

Minseok jumped from his seat when his phone started ringing. He cursed at low volume and placed the red pen he had been using to correct his students’ papers on the desk and took his phone from his pocket. He read the caller's name and sighed, it was Junmyeon, Minseok knew he was going to receive a call from him soon, but not at that time, it was almost midnight.

“Hey Jun” Minseok said upon answering the call “Everything okay?”

“Hey Minnie” Junmyeon answered “Yeah, a little boring, as every first day of a conference session, but let’s talk about you, how did it go?”

“You were right, Chanyeol is a really good student, and I like the project, the only problem is the submission date, we don’t have as much time as I wanted”

“Just that?” Junmyeon asked “I was expecting some yelling and cursing…”

“I’m tempted” Minseok answered him

“He’s really handsome right?”

“He is…”

“Let me guess” Junmyeon said “You won’t do anything”

“He’s my student” Minseok stated “You know how bad it could end if only I tried anything. And you’re assuming too much, I really doubt I will be his type, he’s young”

“Minseok you’re young”

“I’m 30 years old, I’m a weird teacher and my relationships always ended in the worst situation possible. But the most important thing, I’M HIS TEACHER”

“I’m not telling you to go and fuck him right now… Just consider it as a long-term goal, he won’t be your student forever”

“We’ll see…. In six months, or more, when he ends his thesis” Minseok sighed “And also, he may be handsome but that means nothing”

“He’s your type, and he’s really sweet and caring, you two are the perfect match” Junmyeon replied

“My type of man usually ends up cheating on me”

“That’s not true” Junmyeon said after a few seconds “With Luhan and JiYong everything went okay”

“But Luhan went back to China and JiYong to USA” Minseok answered with a sad note in his voice “I accepted it already Jun, I’m fine by myself”

“No, you’re not” Junmyeon replied “But it’s okay, I won't tell you what to do, just… don’t close yourself to any opportunity, wait as much as you want, but don’t let this end before giving it a chance”

“Okay” Minseok sighed again “When were you coming back?”

“At the end of the month, on the 28th, I’ll be there by night, we could go have dinner”

“Nice!” Minseok answered a lot happier changing the subject “By the way, our students will have a surprise exam by then, guess who will grade the papers? Yes, you, for setting this up for me, and I also mean the whole sending Kyungsoo to my class thing”

“Oh no, please” Junmyeon whined “It’s almost a hundred students, I’ll die…”

“Next time you’ll think twice before trying to get involved in my romantic life, and in my job”

“Okay, okay, I got it” Junmyeon answered half laughing “You should go home and get some sleep, yes, I know you’re still at your office, you’re so lucky to have the key to the back door… Well, I shouldn’t say lucky, since you end up sleeping too many nights at your office, but you know what I mean”

“The security guard got tired of opening the back door to me after midnight, that’s all”

“If you had a normal schedule, you wouldn’t be staying up so late”

“I prefer working at night” Minseok replied “And I don’t need that much sleep to function at mornings, you know. My insomnia doesn’t let me sleep over 5 hours and I’m already used to it”

“Minseok…”

“I’ll go home now and try to sleep, mom” Minseok replied before Junmyeon had the opportunity to give him The Talk™ again “You should sleep too, you have to give your conference tomorrow”

“Good night Minseok, I’ll call you tomorrow when I finish”

“Sure, good night”

Minseok hung up the phone and looked at the papers he had still to grade, only two left. He decided to finish grading them and then go home. He understood Junmyeon worried about him, but he sometimes was too much. Junmyeon knew him the longest, they both started their doctorate almost at the same time, Junmyeon was only a year younger than him. They’ve been friends for almost five years. He had witnessed five of Minseok’s breakups, three of them because Minseok’s boyfriends cheated on him. Then Luhan, the second relationship Minseok had after knowing Junmyeon and the longest one, that ended after a year and a half. It ended because Luhan decided to go back to China, to his family, and they weren’t that much in love as both of them believed. And then JiYong was his last boyfriend, they had broken up three months ago, because JiYong was a singer, and they decided to send him to USA to boost his career. Since Minseok didn’t want to leave Korea, they parted ways.

Since then, Minseok stopped trying to get to know anyone romatically, no matter how handsome or charming anyone was. Junmyeon had introduced him to some guys, but Minseok rejected them before they even got the chance to ask him out on a date.

Half an hour later Minseok ended grading his papers, so he put them neatly on a pile on his desk and put everything else in his bag, getting out of his office, closing and locking the door. He walked slowly through the hallways thinking about his day but trying to dismiss everything and concentrate on what mattered, that was tomorrow’s class. He walked to his car and drove home listening to the radio and humming along the songs he knew.

When he got home, he took off his clothes and put on his pajamas, deciding on skipping dinner as no one was going to control him. He took his phone from his bag and checked it, reading and answering some texts from his family and old friends.

When he finished, he noticed a message from a number he didn’t have saved on his phone. He opened it and read it.

“Hey _hyung_ , it’s Chanyeol, I saved your number as you told me and I just wanted to ask when should we met again, I don’t have any schedules so I can work around yours”

The message was sent at 11 p.m. and now it was already 1 a.m. and still he decided to reply, not taking any chance to forget about the message, but first he saved the number on his phone.

“Hi Chanyeol, if you’re okay with it we can meet at the same time as today in my office, but we’ll go to my home, where I have most of the things we need to get a look, sorry for the late reply”

Minseok put his phone on the nightstand and started his night routine, applying all the creams he used to and brushing his teeth. Then he got into his bed and too a book to read till he got sleepy, but a notification from his phone made him put the book back at his place and take the phone instead.

_CHANYEOL: “Sure I can do that! Have a good night Minseok hyung”_

Minseok read the message two times before processing that Chanyeol answered. His mind was lost on the memory of Chanyeol calling him _hyung_ . Minseok told him to call him by his name, but _hyung_ sounded a lot sweeter than he imagined.

He placed his phone again on the nightstand charging it and picked up his book again. He used to read at night not only because of his problems to sleep but because it helped him to separate work from his own mind space. On his first years teaching he often stayed days without stopping thinking about what to teach them, or how to grade them, and he ended up sick and tired. Since then he started trying to get time for himself, like at lunch and once he got into bed. He knew he should be getting more time for his hobbies or just to relax, but he liked working. Junmyeon told him many times that he was a workaholic, and Minseok never denied it. Minseok felt realized when he achieved to make his students learn and enjoy his subject.

Maybe that was another reason why his personal relationships were so weak, he didn’t have that much time to spend outside of work, so his partners felt neglected. Minseok sighed and closed again the book after reading some lines, he couldn’t stop thinking, so he laid on bed and looked at the ceiling, letting his thoughts run wild on his head.

At that moment, the idea of taking some holidays away from his routine popped into his head. Minseok didn't remember when was the last time he had some real holidays, getting out of town and not only to see his parents, but to go overseas, or at least to the beach or somewhere else to enjoy himself.

Summer was only 7 months away, one month after Chanyeol had to submit his draft, his holidays started few weeks after Chanyeol had to defend his final thesis, if approved by the committee. In May he would be evaluating his degree students, in June the retakes, and the second week of July he would be free to go on holidays. His mind wondered about where to go, and his first thought was to go to China. He and Luhan may have ended their relationship, but they still kept touch and he supposed it wouldn’t harm to go to see him, maybe remember the old times, and if it didn’t work, he was sure Yixing, another teacher with whom he was friends, would be there for holidays and would help him find somewhere to go and visit.

He was suddenly tired, maybe the talk he had with Kyungsoo was the reason. Minseok wasn’t used to having anyone, apart from Junmyeon, telling him about how much his life looked void or boring. But it wasn’t the moment to think about that, he had now a project in his hands, well, not in his hands but in Chanyeol’s. Chanyeol’s project was really a challenge for him, not a big challenge as he did before his own thesis about a similar matter, but still. Going through all that beautiful poems he loved was perfect, and even if he denied it, Chanyeol’s handsome face next to those poems made it even better. And with that last thought he drifted to sleep.

The next day he got into class a lot more motivated than the day before, he knew what to expect, and he saw Kyungsoo already at the door when he arrived, so he greeted him and started setting up the class.

“You look more relaxed than yesterday” Kyungsoo said while turning on the projector

“I guess” Minseok answered “Today I want everyone to participate on the debate, even you, I want to do as little as possible”

“You didn’t have the time yesterday to prepare the class?” Kyungsoo asked surprised

“I didn’t need to, I know these poems by heart, but I want everyone but me to participate because of that, I know the answers, so everyone has to get them too”

“That’s cruel”

The bell rang and the students got into their chairs preparing their notebooks and computers for the class. After exactly five minutes since the bell rang Minseok explained the historical context of the poems and what was known from the authors, then he changed the slide in the projector and started the debate, sitting in his chair and letting his students take the lead and show the others how it worked.

He watched proudly how his students started to talk, and Kyungsoo took the lead as moderator and participant. Minseok then took his time to look through all the students in the class, he was able to identify Junmyeon students easily. Some of them were sleeping in the class and he was tempted to call them out, but there was no need, he already located them, he could tell them by the end of the class that they would have to write a long essay. At the end of the classroom Kyungsoo’s students were taking notes and interacting at times, not much, but trying to guess. And at the closest seats to the door there were two students he didn’t recognize. He looked at the first one, who was listening with a poker face to everything they said, but not taking notes or interacting. Then he looked at the second one and he almost gasped out loud, it was Chanyeol.

Chanyeol was taking notes and listening to the debate, concentrated on the class and Minseok was impressed, he never thought Chanyeol would come to his classes, less this day as he told him about doing a surprise exam. Then Chanyeol looked to the front of the class as if he felt someone watching him and looked at him. Minseok, feeling uncovered, gave him a smile as a greeting, which Chanyeol gave back.

Kyungsoo then took a seat beside him while one of his students started arguing with one of Minseok students.

“They really try” Kyungsoo said

“They do, I do this at least once a week, they know what to do”

“Chanyeol is here”

“I know, and some of Junmyeon’s students are sleeping, help me keep them here after the class ends, I’ll make them do a complete essay for tomorrow as punishment”

Minseok looked at his watch and he looked at Kyungsoo, it was time to end the class. Kyungsoo walked through the students and spoke to the ones sleeping taking their student IDs. Minseok meanwhile finished the debate and started explaining his own analysis, and the students started taking notes at full speed knowing this could be a part of the exam.

“That’s all for today” Minseok said five minutes before the bell rang “If anyone has any question please stay behind, and the ones called out by Professor Do, please stay behind too if you don’t want to get expelled from this class forever.”

The students started packing and some students started asking him questions about the class. He quickly dismissed them and faced the sleeping students, who were now wide awake and with fearful looks at Kyungsoo.

“I thought you knew already that if you aren’t going to pay attention to a class, it’s better if you don’t come at all” Minseok started “I don’t know if Professor Kim Junmyeon lets all of you sleep through his classes, but I don’t”

The students looked at him with amazement, Minseok supposed it was because of his expression, he was usually soft and caring. But his students were all that good because they didn’t want to face an angry Minseok again, as his face became expressionless and he was as terrifying as Kyungsoo.

“I don’t want to hear your apologies or any excuses you may come up with” Minseok continued and Kyungsoo watched him proudly “I want you all to make a complete essay by tomorrow of the poems we analyzed today in class, if you don’t know how a full essay is done I don’t care, I will grade this as an exam, and think carefully about coming to class next day if you are not going to pay attention”

“That’s not fair” A brave student suddenly said “We have other subjects, more important than this one, Professor Kim wouldn’t have made us do this”

“Is Professor Kim Junmyeon here?” Kyungsoo asked ironically “You won’t graduate if you keep that attitude”

“I don’t care what Professor Kim makes you or doesn’t make you do” Minseok added “I’m the one giving you classes this month, and if you keep this attitude I’m going to talk seriously with Professor Kim about you, I want that essay on my desk tomorrow before I start the class. If you don’t submit it correctly done or don’t come to class you’ll retake this subject, with me as your teacher”

The five students gulped and the one who argued blushed, probably from rage, but kept his mouth closed and they all got dismissed by Kyungsoo. Minseok turned everything off and took his things, Kyungsoo doing the same. And they got outside the classroom where Kyungsoo’s students were waiting for him, and also Chanyeol and the other guy were waiting there.

“Tomorrow I’ll do a surprise exam to all of them” Minseok said to Kyungsoo at low voice so no one heard him “You can tell them to do something else, or you can do an exam for them”

“I’ll figure something, I will be assisting you tomorrow too” Kyungsoo answered “I want to keep an eye on those five, I have a feeling they will try to do something stupid, and I still have their IDs, they didn’t ask for them”

“They won’t dare” Minseok warned “I will talk to Junmyeon about them”

“Say hi to Chanyeol from me, I’m going to go back with my students to talk about their projects”

“See you later” Minseok said

Minseok approached Chanyeol and the other guy who were waiting some feet apart from them.

“Hello Chanyeol” He greeted him and then looked to the other one “Hi, my name is Kim Minseok, nice to meet you”

“Nice to meet you too” The other one said “I’m Oh Sehun, dance major, I’m Chanyeol’s friend”

“Dance major?” Minseok asked “Why were you on my class? I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t have listeners on my class from other majors usually”

“I heard from Chanyeol you were his new teacher, I like his project and I wanted to know more about it” Sehun answered “But if I can’t, I won’t do it again”

“No, there’s no problem, I was just surprised” Minseok answered and then looked at Chanyeol “You came a lot earlier than I expected, I have another class now, if you want to come, but it won't be as entertaining as this one”

“Sehun has class now, he’ll have to go, but if you let me, I could assist you on class, it’s what I’m supposed to do after all, I can do the same Kyungsoo does if you want” Chanyeol answered.

“I would really appreciate that” he said and turned to Sehun “It was nice to know you Sehun, feel free to come to any of my classes or my office if you want to know anything”

“Thank you, hyung” Sehun answered and bid goodbye.

“Let’s go Chanyeol” Minseok said then “This class is for the last years, let me explain you what’s about so you’ll don’t feel lost”

Minseok explained him the subject and they walked to the class. It went smooth and Minseok thanked Chanyeol for the help, he didn't expect Chanyeol to help him, but having someone with him made students more careful and he was thankful for not having any other discussion with students. Chanyeol was intimidating with his height and the serious face he put during the class.


	4. Chapter 4

_ “They set me to dance with an easy grace _

_ At noon in the palace court. _

_ I brandish a feather before my face, _

_ Or else with a fan I sport. _

_ Though my thews are so strong that the wildest steed, _

_ When I hold his reins, will stand, _

_ I must dance, and when flushed in the dance my meed _

_ Is a draught from the duke's own hand. _

_ The hill-grown hazels I long to see, _

_ And the flowers, which the streamlets lave, _

_ In the West, where a warrior bold like me _

_ Is a warrior, not a slave.” _

“Sampson Agonistes” Land of P’ei.

Chanyeol was having breakfast half asleep when Sehun got into the kitchen humming to some song he didn’t recognize.

“Good morning sunshine” Sehun said teasing him “Have you slept at all tonight?”

“Yes, but not much” Chanyeol answered “ I was looking through my notes to see if everything was okay on my thesis, I will bring a draft today for Minseok to see it, maybe it will help us when we choose the poems”

“I’m glad you can continue with his help, these past months you’ve all day reading and searching without any answer” Sehun said filling a glass with coffee and milk “Is he giving classes today?”

“Yes, why?” Chanyeol asked 

“Why don’t we go to his class? Maybe it will help you, and I get to see him”

“I should be helping him, as he helps me, I should be his assistant teacher, I will talk to him about it today” Chanyeol then asked confused “But why would you want to see him?”

“You said he was really cute, and he’s friends with Junmyeon”

“That’s not an answer…”

“I never said you would like my answer, let’s go” Sehun said “I’ll pay attention to the class, I promise, and I won’t embarrass you”

“So, you won't explain me why do you want to go?” Chanyeol asked

“Nope, so get your things, we’re going to class!” Sehun cheerfully said “Wait, at what time is it?”

“In half an hour” Chanyeol answered, but he would keep to himself why he knew it, he didn't want Sehun finding out he checked all his classes, so he got up and moved to his room “He starts the class five minutes past the hour, so we must get there early to find a good seat in the back”

“Okay my sunshine” Sehun answered playful “I have class after, so I’ll take my things, I’ll let you go with him to his house all alone~”

Chanyeol didn't answer, knowing Sehun was playing with him, as he liked too much doing, and anything he said would be used against him afterwards. They went to the building and this time Chanyeol found the way to the classroom esasier than the last time he got into the building looking for Minseok’s office. There were a lot of students waiting outside when they arrived, so they stayed close to the back door. Once the bell rang the students all moved and got into the class and Chanyeol and Sehun almost run to get into the seats near the door. Chanyeol took out a notebook to take notes and then he looked into the front of the classroom where a projector showed the name of the subject and he saw Kyungsoo talking to Minseok from where the computer was placed in a desk on the opposite side of where he was.

At 9:05 Minseok started talking while Kyungsoo changed the slides, Minseok explained clearly to everyone the historical context and the little that was known of the authors, then he sat back and the debate started. Chanyeol watched amazed how the students analyzed the poems, and even Kyungsoo participated. Minseok only watched from his seat how the people answered. Chanyeol saw him look intensely at some students that were sleeping through the class, and he had the feeling that those students were about to be called out.

Then, he felt someone looking at him and then met Minseok’s eyes. The man smiled at him and he returned the smile, and then politely returned to take notes, not wanting to bother Minseok, because he got into his class without warning him first, and he didn’t know if it was allowed.

At the end of the class they stayed behind, but outside of the classroom they watched the sleeping students get dragged to the front of the classroom. They listened while outside to the whole discussion and Chanyeol thought Minseok could be really creepy when angry.

Minseok approached them after a little while and Sehun talked to him briefly, not embarrassing him, something Chanyeol thanked him for, and he was left alone with him. Chanyeol was glad Minseok let him be his assistant, as some teachers, like Junmyeon, didn’t like that, and Chanyeol felt better being useful to Minseok, and could spend more time with him.

After the class ended, he stood next to the door while Minseok made sure everything was turned off properly.

“Let’s go” Minseok told him

They walked to Minseok’s office and he sat in the same chair he had the day before and watched Minseok expecting him to say something. Because he was doubting if they will start with the project, or if he should go home and come back later, it was lunch time after all. As if Minseok sensed what he was thinking he looked at him.

“Since you helped me on the class let me take you to lunch” Minseok said with his gummy smile “Then after lunch we can go to my house and start with your project again”

Minseok took him to a restaurant near the university, where Minseok told him he used to have lunch with Junmyeon and Kyungsoo. While they had lunch Minseok talked about his time being a student and Chanyeol listened carefully, he wouldn’t lie, he loved hearing Minseok’s voice.

The afternoon was spent the same way as the last one, but this time in Minseok’s apartment. Chanyeol really felt as if he was invading Minseok’s personal space, but the man assured him it was okay, as he didn't want to take all his documents to his office, and it was more comfortable to work there.

The rest of the week ended up being the same. Chanyeol went to the university every morning Minseok had classes and helped him through them, making Kyungsoo raise his brow several times as Chanyeol became a lot closer to Minseok than he expected him to. Those days they would eat together or with Kyungsoo. Chanyeol remembered specifically two days Minseok cooked for both of them at his home, Chanyeol sometimes felt as if he was dreaming, because Minseok took care of him apart from helping him with his thesis. Chanyeol was sure that his initial crush on the man was developing, he wanted to ignore it, but with all the time they spent together Chanyeol couldn’t help himself. Not that he would ever do anything, he was still shy on those things, and he knew too clearly that he couldn’t do anything inappropriate while working on his thesis.

Junmyeon got back at the end of that month, and Chanyeol found himself laughing when Minseok handled him three surprise exams he did to his students for Junmyeon to grade. The funny thing was that they were already graded by Minseok, and it was only a small punishment to Junmyeon, even if Chanyeol didn’t know the reason of the punishment.

He started to get to know a lot of Minseok’s traits, like how he liked preparing his classes, that he always drank at least three cups of black coffee every day, and that he didn’t sleep as much as he should. He also started paying attention to details, the way he bit his lip when concentrated in grading, how he pouted or made cute faces randomly when bored, or how Minseok’s eyes, even though he kept a straight face before his students, showed all his emotions.

Sehun kept dropping him hints about how Chanyeol should fuck Minseok, or date him, but Chanyeol kept at mind Kyungsoo’s words, so he restrained himself, but at the end, he couldn’t stop himself from checking out Minseok’s body when they were at the older's home and Minseok changed clothes, or getting rapt looking at him from time to time while the older one worked. Chanyeol was still shy around him, not as much as at the beginning, when he even feared talking or disturbing him, but he still felt embarrased, maybe because of his crush, he was afraid of getting caught looking at the older, or acting dumb around him, because, as Sehun liked pointing out a lot, when he really liked someone, he was a shy mess.

His thesis progressed as much as their relationship. On the last meeting he had with his tutor on the thesis, he complimented Chanyeol for the great development of the project. His tutor knew he was getting help from Minseok, as he was another of Minseok’s friends. Professor Zhang knew Minseok had really strong morals, and that it was only help what he was getting from him, Professor Zhang knew Minseok wasn’t a teacher that would write a student’s thesis for them, not for money, neither for friendship or affection.

They worked both at Minseok’s office and at Minseok’s house, depending on the classes Minseok had that day. But the last months they stayed at Minseok’s office, mostly because by then, they didn’t need to bring all the materials from Minseok house, he already had them analyzed, and there were only a few left to look at.

Minseok’s office was nice and comfortable, it had one big office desk closer to the door, where Minseok worked, and a bookshelf against the wall full of ancient Chinese books. On the other side he had a couch and a coffee table, where Minseok tutored with his students. And in the corner another desk against the window where Chanyeol worked.

“I don’t think you should use that poem” Minseok told him suddenly one day at his office “This one has not been proven that it’s from this dynasty, you should use the ones from the other folder, as I told you”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I think I misplaced it” Chanyeol answered and threw all the analysis he made to the paper bin “I think I’m going crazy with this ones”

“You only have two left, and a whole month to end the draft” Minseok answered taking a seat at his side “It will be over soon”

“I don’t know, they can reject it” Chanyeol confessed.

“They won’t, mark my words” Minseok said and Chanyeol felt his hand at his back moving in circles “You’ve improved a lot, now you don’t really need my help at all, you can analyze all of the poems and music by yourself”

“That’s all thanks to you” Chanyeol said “I looked for these poems for months, and I didn’t even get close to finding one. You had all the materials ready and organized, if it wasn’t for you, I would have had to drop this part, or I would have needed another year to finish this…”

“I also had help back then” Minseok answered him moving his hand to his neck “My roommate was Chinese and helped me find the poems and translate them, if it wasn’t for him I would still be looking for this poems”

“Then, if I pass, tell me his address so I can thank him, I’ll send him a big gift”

“That would be nice, Luhan loves receiving gifts”

Chanyeol detected a bit of sadness in Minseok’s voice when talking about his friend, but decided to not ask him. Maybe he could ask Junmyeon about it, with who he had a much closer relationship.

Junmyeon kidnapped him one day from Minseok’s office when the date of submission was close. Chanyeol was stressed and concerned about his work, almost five years of work were about to get evaluated. Minseok helped him a lot those days, correcting for him grammar mistakes and forcing him to eat, even if Minseok was also busy with all the exams he had to do and grade. That’s why Junmyeon dragged him out of Minseok’s office.

“Min told me you were about to go crazy” Junmyeon excused himself “And I wasn’t going to let you end up in a hospital right before you end this”

“But you must be busy hyung” Chanyeol replied “Minseok-hyung has a lot of exams to grade and meetings and all, you must have as much… I could have handled it by myself”

“Don’t be stupid Yeol, I know you” Junmyeon warned him “I do have work, but never too much to not help you, Minseok was about to force you go on holidays with him if you kept being that stressed. Also, Minseok is the calmest person I know, and if you are still stressed even having him, it means something, you’re too stressed”

“I’m fine” Chanyeol sighed, the idea of going on holidays with Minseok lingering on his mind and he was almost daydreaming “You shouldn't be wasting your time with me”

“If your parents were here right now, they would smack your head” Junmyeon said “You know I don’t lie, so listen to me, you’ll do fine! I don’t want to brag about my friend but, Minseok looked through your project, and he said it was perfect, it’s going to pass, Minseok never lies”

“I don’t know hyung” Chanyeol sighed again “It’s five years of work, and I’m not sure, I don’t know if the other parts are okay”

“You need to be more confident, Yixing told you it’s perfect, Minseok too, and I also think it’s perfect, so trust yourself a little bit more”

Minseok ended his evaluations a week before Chanyeol had to defend his thesis. His draft was already approved, now he had to defend it before the evaluation committee. Chanyeol was really nervous, and both Minseok and Junmyeon decided to take him out for dinner and some beers to ease him a bit, and Sehun joined, also worried of his friend.

They had some pizzas in a famous place on the center of the city, they ordered two familiar pizzas and a medium one to share. They sat in the back of the restaurant, Minseok and Junmyeon in one side and Sehun and Chanyeol at the other.

“Next week we can hold a bigger celebration once he passes” Sehun said “You can invite Yixing and Kyungsoo and we’ll invite some other friends, nothing big”

“Sounds like a good idea” Junmyeon answered “But I didn’t know you also knew Kyungsoo and Yixing, Sehunnie”

“I used to get into Chanyeol classes a lot” Sehun shrugged and added “And Yixing was my teacher too when I was finishing my degree, we have danced together a few times on university shows, he’s an incredible dancer”

“He really is” Minseok added “I went to some events where he danced with my friend Luhan some years ago, he’s incredible, he is an incredible teacher and an incredible dancer, he’s amazing”

“You too” Chanyeol replied without thinking and then blushed when everyone looked at him, he hadn’t talked at all during all that day, deep in his thoughts “I mean… You are amazing too hyung”

“Oh no” Minseok answered smiling shyly “I’m not that great”

“Don’t be that humble Minseok, or should I tell them how incredible you are at singing?” Junmyeon added

“You just did” Sehun answered playfully “I want to hear him, let’s go to the karaoke after dinner, I haven’t been there in such a long time…”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea” Minseok tried to say, but the look on Junmyeon’s eyes told everyone that there was no choice

Chanyeol looked at the interaction curiously, he wanted to hear Minseok singing too, even if going to a karaoke meant he was going to be forced to sing too and he wasn’t confident at all with his voice. But Sehun was going to drag him there if needed, and Junmyeon too, that’s why Chanyeol didn’t like the idea of going out with those two. They always made plans without caring about his opinion and forced him to do things he was shy with.

Chanyeol looked at Minseok fearful, and the man smiled at him, but he looked afraid too. They both sighed at the same time and laughed.

“Don’t worry guys” Junmyeon said with a mischievous smile “We’re just going to have fun”

“That’s what I’m worried about” Minseok whispered high enough for Chanyeol to hear him “Let’s pay for dinner, then go, I have a meeting tomorrow and I don’t want to puke over any of the other teachers”

“Why would you puke?” Chanyeol asked a little bit lost

“Oh, my dear friend” Sehun laughed and he put his arm over Chanyeol’s shoulder “Karaoke means alcohol, and I think you know what alcohol can do”

Chanyeol blushed hard when he realized how much of an idiot he’d been. The others laughed more discreetly, and Chanyeol blushed even more when he saw Minseok trying to hold his laugh. Chanyeol thought it wasn’t his fault, he had other things in his mind, like his thesis. Also, he avoided alcohol, he wasn’t a good drinker, he could hold a few glasses, but as he hadn’t been drinking at all in the past months, he’d probably get drunk only with one or two glasses.

They finished the few slices of pizza left and Junmyeon paid for everything, saying that when Chanyeol passed it would be Chanyeol’s turn to pay for everyone. Minseok agreed with Junmyeon and Sehun didn’t want to pay at all so he couldn’t argue with that. They got into a taxi to the nearest karaoke, which was the most famous one in town, and the most expensive, but the best. This time everyone paid their own pass, but Minseok and Junmyeon bought both two extra bottles of soju, even if everyone had already one with their ticket.

Chanyeol shivered at the idea of finishing that much alcohol, at least no one was going to drive after that, but Chanyeol thought that maybe Minseok would be puking all over the teachers in the next day meeting.


	5. Chapter 5

_ Within this still sequestered spot, _

_ On either side a sheltering hill _

_ He comes to rear his humble cot, _

_ Which overlooks the murmuring rill. _

_ And here he means to live and brood _

_ Upon the joys of solitude. _

_ No novice in the world is he; _

_ Composed and stately is his air; _

_ Here may he stay, forever free _

_ From worldly chatter, worldly care. _

_ To live in quiet day and night. _

_ Is, so he swears, his sole delight. _

“The Recluse” Country of Wei

Minseok watched Chanyeol open the bottle of soju with a grimace on his face. He didn’t know why, but he was sure it would be an interesting night. Sehun was the youngest, so he was supposed to serve everyone on the room they rented, but he was too spoiled by Junmyeon, as it looked, and Chanyeol ended up being the one on charge. The first three shots they took at the same time, one for Chanyeol’s success, one for Junmyeon’s holidays, and one for Minseok’s. Sehun said he didn’t have anything to cheer for, so he just served another to everyone and drank it in one go.

“So… Who’s going first?” Sehun asked

“Minseok should go first” Junmyeon said “He’s going to be the only one conscious after a few more glasses, so, before I lose consciousness, I need to hear him sing”

“None of you is a good drinker?” Minseok asked surprised and looked at everyone, Junmyeon just smiled at him, Minseok knew Junmyeon couldn’t hold more than one bottle of soju. Chanyeol looked away and that sole action spoke for him, and Sehun put a blank face and answered

“I can hold a few drinks, but soju like this…”

“So….” Junmyeon continued “Minseok goes first”

Minseok got up defeated, but not before downing another shot of soju. Minseok liked drinking, he could hold his liquor pretty well, so he could drink a lot without getting wasted, as it looked the rest of the people of the room would end up being. He chose, as always, a TVXQ song to sing. Junmyeon knew he was going to sing a TVXQ song, and Minseok didn't care at all if Sehun and Chanyeol watched him being a complete fanboy over TVXQ songs, the sooner they knew, the less they would make fun of him. 

He closed his eyes to avoid getting nervous from the stares of the others, then he started singing following the music. TVXQ was once his motivation towards music, so he put all his feelings into the song he knew the lyrics by heart. When he ended singing, he opened again his eyes. The others started clapping and Minseok looked at them blushing.

“You’re fantastic hyung” Chanyeol said and Minseok bit his lip. Minseok looked at Chanyeol who was smiling. Minseok couldn't help himself, he felt smug, he made Chanyeol smile in such a pretty way to him. He didn’t care about Junmyeon or Sehun’s opinion, if Chanyeol liked it, it was worth the suffering.

“Thank you” Minseok answered smiling too.

“Next round you have to sing a song from another group, you always sing the same TVXQ ones” Junmyeon said “But now, Chanyeol is next”

“Me? Why?” Chanyeol asked surprised while Minseok sat by his side and drank another shot of soju.

“I want to hear you sing again, it’s been so long” Junmyeon argued “the last time I heard you sing was three years ago at the university festival, and you only sang for 30 seconds”

Minseok watched Junmyeon and then Chanyeol with interest, he wondered how did Chanyeol sing, even Kyungsoo told him how good he was as an artist. But Chanyeol only told him about his compositions, not about him singing, so he was curious.

“I want to hear you sing too” Minseok added “I’ve never had the opportunity to hear you sing”

“Yeah Yeol” Sehun said “Just do it, drink another shot and you’ll see you’re not nervous anymore”

“Okay, I’ll do it” Chanyeol said defeated “But you’re next Sehun”

Minseok watched Chanyeol choose an English song “All of me” from John Legend. Chanyeol started singing and Minseok couldn’t stop looking at Chanyeol, he was really impressed. His voice was soft but with a low tone. Minseok felt as if heat waves cursed by him with every note that came from Chanyeol’s mouth. Minseok closed his eyes and let the music fill him, Chanyeol’s voice was perfect for this song, and the lyrics, sung by him, felt a lot deeper that Minseok imagined. Minseok felt as if he was in a cloud with Chanyeol’s voice singing, and he smiled, Chanyeol was a box of surprises, every new thing he learnt from him was better, he wanted to get to know Chanyeol deeper.

When Chanyeol finished singing Minseok opened his eyes and smiled even more, and clapped immediately, quicker than Sehun and Junmyeon. But Chanyeol’s eyes were looking at Minseok, and they felt as if they were on their own world.

“Your voice is amazing, I love it” Minseok said sincerely “You should sing more”

“I’m more of a rapper than a vocal” Chanyeol replied

“He’s an amazing rapper” Sehun interrupted them breaking their bubble “Later we can show you how good we are rapping hyung”

“Sure, that would be great” Minseok replied “It’s not fair I’m the only one who doesn’t know about your rap, because I’m pretty sure Junmyeon already heard you, right?”

“Yup” Junmyeon asked and they drank another shot before it was Sehun’s turn.

Sehun decided to choose a hip-hop song with more rap than singing parts and nailed it, even if he had a little lisp on some words. After him Junmyeon sang a famous ballad of a dorama, he had really good vocals, and all of them knew that and made him sing a second song.

After a while, half of the soju bottles were empty, and they were more carefree and drunk, but after a while they stopped singing and just drank. Minseok was the most sober one, even if he drank more than the rest of them. Minseok could see both Sehun and Junmyeon laughing at each other both already drunk.

Chanyeol sat by his side, they were talking about music groups, even if Minseok’s knowledge was old. Chanyeol was lying on the sofa, his head resting on Minseok's shoulder, and Chanyeol's hands were playing with one of the eldest. Minseok was really cozy like that and let the drunk Chanyeol play all he wanted. He couldn’t deny he was attracted to Chanyeol, not after all the time they spent together, he was amazed about his own control to not do something inappropriate or say something lewd.

Minseok felt guilty for all the times he had wet dreams with Chanyeol as the protagonist. Minseok was fascinated with how soft Chanyeol could be, but hot at the same time, he was big, fit, with a deep voice, he was hot. But then when he got to know him, he was much more than just hot, he was soft, he blushed so many times, and stuttered when praised. Chanyeol was humble, and although he seemed to have a lot of confidence at heart, he was insecure of his work. Minseok couldn’t help himself from falling for the precious gem he had before him. And now, in such intimate position they were, he couldn’t stop his heart for racing, and yet being too comfortable. He felt like he found a lot more than he expected when he started the project, he not only got the motivation he craved for investigation, he also got to know an amazing person and felt his heart become warm once again over someone, even hotter than with JiYong.

“Chanyeol” Minseok said, making Chanyeol look up to him from his shoulder “Thank you”

“Why hyung?” Chanyeol asked dragging the words drunk, Minseok found this really cute, as Chanyeol made an unconscious pout when asking.

“For everything” Minseok answered and Chanyeol looked at him confused “Forget it Yeolie, you look tired, do you want to go home?”

“I’m fine” Chanyeol said “I can drink more, I’m still okay”

“I’m not that sure, you look pretty drunk to me” Minseok said with a soft laugh

“I’m not” Chanyeol said and got up, getting another glass from the table in front of them and drinking two shots in a row.

Minseok looked at him amused and drank another one. Chanyeol looked cute with his cheeks reed from the alcohol and the pout he had as if he was offended. Chanyeol drank some more shots as if he was trying to prove something, but when the boy moved to sit, he almost stumbled and Minseok stood up, grabbing him before he fell. Minseok felt Chanyeol hold on to him, as if he was unable to walk on his own.

“Hyung, the room’s spinning” Chanyeol said “I don’t feel okay…”

Minseok got alarmed by that and got a better hold of Chanyeol, moving him so Chanyeol was leaning on him, with an arm around his neck and one of Minseok's arms was grabbing his hip.

“I’m taking him to the bathroom” Minseok said to the other two, Junmyeon looked at him and nodded, but Minseok knew Junmyeon was too drunk to understand what he said. He walked slowly with Chanyeol till the closest bathroom and then sat Chanyeol in one of the cubicles while he took some paper and wet it.

When Minseok got into the cubicle again Chanyeol was on the floor with his face into the toilet throwing up. Minseok moved quickly and caressed his back while refreshing his neck and his forehead. Chanyeol continued throwing up for a while and Minseok took care of him, cleaning him from time to time and refreshing him. Minseok also went quickly to get a bottle of water when Chanyeol was a little bit better.

“Drink a little bit, just small sips” Minseok told Chanyeol “You will feel better, trust me, then we’ll go home”

Chanyeol tried to drink, but soon started throwing up again, and Minseok frowned. He continued soothing him and when he was calm again, he told Chanyeol to drink little sips again and wait for him. Minseok decided to take him home, but he was going to need his things, and Chanyeol ones too.

When he got into the room Sehun and Junmyeon were kissing, this made things harder, as he watched them making out without noticing him there. He took his things and decided to take Chanyeol to his own flat, his first idea of warning Sehun and helping both get home so Sehun could take care of Chanyeol dismissed. Minseok didn’t want to know if Junmyeon and Sehun were going to continue their own party elsewhere, he needed to take Chanyeol to a good bed and to a place where he would be taken care of, he wasn’t taking chances.

Minseok took all his things and Chanyeol’s ones and returned to the bathroom, he was happy there weren’t a lot of people that night in the karaoke so no one saw Chanyeol half-sleep clinging to the toilet as if it was his only lifeline.

“Chanyeol” Minseok called him “Hold onto me, we’re going home”

Chanyeol hummed something that sounded like an okay, and Minseok managed to make him put on his jacket. Minseok made Chanyeol lean on him again and helped him walk outside the karaoke, where he called a taxi. Minseok hoped Chanyeol wouldn’t throw up in the car, taxi drivers usually got really mad about that, and even if he didn’t live to far from the karaoke, Chanyeol didn’t look like he could walk for almost half an hour. 

The taxi arrived soon and Minseok helped Chanyeol get into the vehicle. He got into the car after him, and told his address to the driver, looking at Chanyeol again. The younger was half asleep again, with his eyes almost closing, and even if he was worried about the boy, he still thought Chanyeol looked cute like that.

It took only ten minutes to arrive to Minseok’s flat, and Minseok paid the driver and helped Chanyeol to get out of the taxi. Chanyeol looked white as a sheet and looked like he was about to throw up again and Minseok rushed to help him walk to the door, they took the lift to the third floor and Minseok opened the door as fast as possible feeling how Chanyeol was leaning more and more into him and looked sicker.

Minseok took Chanyeol to his bathroom and when the younger saw the toilet he threw himself to the floor and opened the lid and threw up again. Minseok rubbed his back and went to his kitchen to take a cloth and a bottle of water. When he looked at his phone it was already 2AM, and Minseok knew it was going to be a long night, and it wasn’t at all what he portrayed this night being, but he couldn’t complain, they had fun singing and talking while drinking. Maybe teasing Chanyeol wasn’t the best idea, but Minseok didn’t know he was going to drink more and as fast as he did.

When Chanyeol looked like he wasn’t about to continue throwing up, Minseok helped him stand up and took him to his guest room. He helped him sit into the bed and gave him the bottle of water.

“I’m sorry hyung” Chanyeol said

“Why for?”

“Bothering you, you should have ignored me”

“I would never do that, we’ve known each other for five months, you know that” Minseok replied. Chanyeol was looking to the floor and whispered something Minseok didn’t hear “Wait here for a moment, I’ll give you something to use as a pajamas”

Minseok went to his own room and looked for something Chanyeol could use. Chanyeol was bigger than him, but he liked using oversized clothes, so he was sure some of those would fit the taller. He found some loose pajamas pants he rarely used and an oversized t-shirt and went back to Chanyeol, who was still sat the same way he left him.

“Use this” Minseok said making Chanyeol look at him “I think it’ll fit you, do you need something else? Do you want more water, tea?”

“No need for tea, hyung” Chanyeol replied “But I finished the water, if you can bring me more”

“Sure” Minseok replied and went to get it, then placed it in the nightstand.

Chanyeol had already taken of his jacket while he got the water, and then stood up to change the rest, but failed and fell again on the bed. Minseok looked at him and laughed softly, then he decided to help him.

“Don't move, just raise your arms, I'll help you”

Chanyeol blushed but did as told, Minseok buried his lewd thoughts and took off his shirt, he couldn’t stop himself from looking to the younger’s chest, his skin looked soft and he was fit, he had abs, 8-pack abs. Minseok felt himself drooling and he was sure that he was going to have wet dreams again that night. He looked at Chanyeol’s face, but the boy was looking away blushing, and half asleep, if his closed eyes were an indicator.

He rushed dressing him with his shirt, almost shivering when his fingers touched Chanyeol’s skin. When it was time for the pants he stopped, he didn’t think he was ready to do that.

“Can you try take your pants off?” Minseok asked Chanyeol

Chanyeol opened his eyes slowly, as if he was almost asleep then unbuttoned his pants, the sound was loud in Minseok’s ears, too loud. Chanyeol took them off without getting up too much and looked proud when he finished. Then he looked for the pants Minseok gave him, but he was unable to put each leg in the correct hole, so Minseok kneeled and helped him.

Minseok looked up at Chanyeol's face as he pulled his pants up, because Chanyeol had to get up to fully pull them up. Their eyes met, and Minseok’s mind went on holidays while he got closer and closer to Chanyeol, who looked too pretty to be ignored with his cheeks flushed and his soft features. One of Minseok’s hands moved up to Chanyeol’s cheek, Chanyeol leant on his hand and closed his eyes for a second, but then Chanyeol opened them and they looked into each other’s eyes.

Minseok wasn’t sure who was the one that closed the distance between them, but the next thing he felt was Chanyeol’s soft lips over his. Their lips just touched for a second and they got apart, but this time Minseok’s control disappeared and he was the one to kiss first. Chanyeol didn’t reciprocate at first, but then he started kissing him back and Minseok moved his hand to Chanyeol’s neck and deepened the kiss.

The kiss got heated by moments and soon Minseok found himself over Chanyeol, with Chanyeol lying on the bed. They kissed for what it felt like hours, and Minseok found himself addicted to Chanyeol’s lips. They got apart when the oxygen was a need and Minseok tried to memorize the sight below him, Chanyeol blushing with lips swollen from kissing.

Minseok then stopped himself, Chanyeol's eyes were closing, and his body was trembling from all the sickness he had before. Minseok then realized Chanyeol was drunk, and probably didn’t reciprocate his feelings. He moved and took a minute to calm himself, he already knew he liked this boy a lot, so he didn’t want to mess it up with a stupid thing like taking advantage of Chanyeol when he was drunk, his morals kept him at bay.

“I’m sorry Chanyeol” He said then, while the other boy fought to keep his eyes open “Sleep well, if you need anything I’m in the next room, don’t hesitate to wake me up, I’m keeping my door open”

Minseok gave a last smile to Chanyeol and then he left the room and went to his own room, he still had the feeling of Chanyeol’s lips over his own, and changed his clothes slowly why thinking about everything he felt while kissing him. Minseok didn’t want to admit it, but maybe Chanyeol got deeper in his heart that he already discovered. And with that thought, he put his alarm and his phone charging and went to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

_ “How brightly shines the pure white moon, _

_ It's brilliant glow lighting my bed; _

_ Sleep is difficult for a person with worries, _

_ How long the night lasts when one is awake?” _

"Song of Sorrow;” “Nineteen Old Poems" Han Dynasty

Chanyeol woke up dizzy, he felt demolished, his head hurt a lot, and he felt all achy everywhere. He tried to get up, but his head hurt too much, he looked around to find somewhere to grab and then he realized he didn’t know where he was. His mind was still dizzy from the pain and he didn’t remember much of the last night. He looked around in the room and then looked at his clothes, those clothes weren’t his, and it wasn’t his room.

Then the memories of the last night struck him like a truck. He remembered being in the karaoke drinking, Minseok’s angelic voice and then sitting right beside him with his head on Minseok’s shoulder. He remembered Minseok telling him he was drunk enough, and his drunk-self decided to prove he could drink a lot more and drank without control and ended up sick. He remembered Minseok’s hand on his back soothing him and cleaning and refreshing him. Minseok taking him home, almost carrying all his weight, and again throwing up in a bathroom and Minseok giving him water to drink and clean his mouth. And then he only had little images of himself sat in a bed and Minseok giving him clothes. And the last thing, they were kissing.

Chanyeol felt his ears become hot at the thought, he couldn’t remember everything from that moment, but he still had the tickling feeling of Minseok’s lips over his, his hands on his cheek and neck. Minseok demanding lips moving over his own. His mind wondered about everything he felt last night, and he sighed. Then, a memory appeared on his head, Minseok apologizing to him, and he felt confused.

He assumed he must be in Minseok’s apartment, and his heart skipped a beat, it was something he never thought would happen. Chanyeol decided his pain was no longer a problem because he was in Minseok’s house. He didn’t recognize the room, but when he was here before he’d always been on the living room, he never ventured to the other parts of the house.

Chanyeol decided to get up and check his phone, he supposed Minseok told Sehun where he was, but still he wanted to let him know he was okay, and check what time was it, and maybe get back to his flat, to not bother Minseok anymore.

Chanyeol got up slowly, not wanting to test if his stomach still had something to throw up. He saw his clothes were folded into a desk, he thought that must have been Minseok’s doing, because he didn’t remember at all taking care of his own clothes. He walked slowly to the door and got outside of the room, everything was dark, no lights on, but he wandered looking for the bathroom to wash his face. He had taken the bottle of water that was on the nightstand and drank half to take off the rusty feeling he had in his mouth. He found the bathroom he remembered from the last night and washed his face, when he ended, he went back to the room and took his phone from his jacket. He didn’t have any notifications, and it was only 10AM which was earlier than he used to get up when he had hangover. He got outside of the room again, and noticed there was another room beside his, with the door open, he looked inside trying to be as subtle as possible, it was Minseok’s room, and Minseok was sleeping on his bed. Chanyeol stood there watching the man sleep, he thought Minseok looked even cuter when he slept, as he was hugging a pillow and with his mouth a little open and drooling. He laughed softly and then Minseok moved suddenly and woke up, catching Chanyeol looking at him.

“Chanyeol?” Minseok asked with his voice hoarse from sleeping with his mouth open “What time is it? Are you okay?”

“Yes hyung” Chanyeol replied “It’s 10AM., it’s still early”

Minseok stood up quickly and cursed

“Does something happen?” Chanyeol asked

“No, well… yes, I have a meeting at 1PM in the university” Minseok answered “I should have woken up at nine, my alarm didn’t work”

Minseok looked in his drawer and took some clothes out, then he looked at Chanyeol and took some other things out, like a towel and some more clothes.

“I will take a quick shower, and then you can have one too” Minseok told him “Use this clothes, I think they will fit you, as the pajama I let you fits you. Your clothes from yesterday smell like vomit, so I wouldn’t recommend you using them today”

Chanyeol nodded and Minseok showed him the bathroom again and told him how the shower worked and where he had his products so he could use them. He also lent him a new toothbrush so he could take the remaining feeling of dread from his mouth.

Chanyeol went back to the guest room while the older took his shower and looked at the clothes the older gave him. They were sports pants and an oversized shirt along with an oversized sweatshirt. He imagined Minseok wearing them, as he was sure they would fit him, so it meant they would be giant for Minseok. His mind was playful that morning, because the image that appeared in his head was one of Minseok only wearing the sweatshirt, and nothing else. He imagined him looking cute and sexy at the same time, and his blood went south and Chanyeol snapped, he couldn’t have an erection in Minseok’s guest room. He thought about his grandma to get the boner to disappear and he felt sorry for the woman, he loved her, but she was surely a good way to get his erection go away.

He heard the shower stop and a fully dressed Minseok got into the room with his hair still wet and a towel over his shoulders to prevent the clothes he wore to get wet. Minseok was wearing semi-formal clothing, black trousers that hugged his legs in a magnificent way, and a white shirt with the first two buttons unbuttoned.

“You can go now” Minseok told him “I will prepare breakfast for both of us, and then I’ll take you to your flat before going to the meeting, take your time”

Chanyeol nodded and Minseok went to the kitchen while he got into the shower. Minseok’s flat had two bathrooms, and the one he was into was the only one with shower. It was big, Chanyeol calculated two people could fit inside the shower, and his mind wandered again to lewd ideas.

He started showering just letting the hot water relax his body, and then he took the soap and started cleaning himself slowly, his mind wavered over the kiss from the last night, and the image of Minseok with wet hair from before. He started caressing himself, his stomach, his arms, and one of his hands stopped in his nipple, he rubbed it slightly and sighed, he was sensitive there. His body reacted quickly when he started touching his nipples. He took them between his fingers and squeezed, pulled, and caressed them, making waves of pleasure run through him.

He felt his dick get hard, and with his other hand he started to stroke it slowly, he moaned immediately over the pleasure. In his mind, the image of Minseok naked appeared, and in his mind, he began to imagine that it was Minseok who was touching him. Minseok's warm hands on his skin, touching him in all those places that drove him crazy. He closed his eyes, and he was almost able to feel the warmth of the older man's hands on him.

He imagined Minseok kneeling in front of him and taking his cock in his hand, stroking it slowly and staring at him biting his lip, his eyes full of desire. Minseok bringing his mouth closer to his cock, giving him a kiss on the tip, and then licking it from the base to the tip. Then taking it between his lips and putting it in his mouth.

Chanyeol hissed and stroked himself quicker, he was starting to feel a bundle of nerves grow in the pit of his stomach, he was close. His mind still had the image of Minseok giving him a blowjob, Minseok mouth taking him with pleasure in his eyes, deep-throating and then playing with his balls with his hands. Chanyeol lowered his hand from his nipples to his balls and played with them too, and then he circled with one of his fingers his rim a few times before getting one inside him. He tried to reach further with his finger, but it wasn’t enough, so he added a second one and stretched himself while still stroking himself. He brushed slightly with his fingers his prostate and tried to swallow the loud moan he was about to utter, biting his lips hard. He was about to come, so he stroked himself faster and fingered himself deeper, till everything exploded and he came, whispering Minseok’s name.

Chanyeol opened his eyes after a minute, and then tried to clean himself and the mess he did quickly, as he imagined he’d been in the shower a long time already. He exited the shower with the thought that he smelled like Minseok and a smile on his face, even if he was flushed from the embarrassment of having masturbated in Minseok’s shower.

Chanyeol didn’t know what was going on with him, he had admitted he may have a crush on the older, but he had never imagined himself doing what he just did. Chanyeol tried to deny he could have more than just a crush, but he wanted to make Minseok fall for him, he craved kissing Minseok’s lips and doing a lot more things he would never dare to say out loud without dying from embarrassment.

He put on Minseok’s clothes and looked at himself in the mirror, they fitted him perfectly, the shirt was even a little big for him, making it more comfortable. The pants were a little bit short if he bent his legs, but when he stood still, they fit him well enough.

He went to the kitchen with a towel on his shoulders and sat at the table, where Minseok was placing several things.

“I hope you had a relaxing shower” Minseok told him smiling and Chanyeol blushed remembering what he did “Was there any problem?”

“No, not at all” Chanyeol replied almost panicking “It was relaxing, the hot water did wonders, I feel a lot better”

“I’m glad” Minseok said “I prepared you some coffee, as you told me you liked it, with milk and a lot of sugar”

Chanyeol looked at Minseok surprised, he remembered telling the older once how he liked his coffee, but it was a long time ago, and he didn’t expect Minseok to remember it.

“Thank you, you shouldn't’ have bothered, I could have had anything” Chanyeol replied

“It’s not a problem, I just chose the bigger coffee maker, as I usually drink mine black and no sugar”

They had their coffee with some biscuits and with little talk, neither of them tried to talk about what happened the night before. Chanyeol helped him wash the things they used and then put all his clothes into a plastic bag Minseok lent him before going out. Minseok led him to his car and they both got in.

“I need you to tell me where to go” Minseok told Chanyeol

“I could have taken the bus” Chanyeol replied “Just go in the direction of the university, I’ll guide you.”

They stayed in silence the most part of the ride, but when Minseok stopped in front of Chanyeol’s building Chanyeol thanked Minseok for the help last night.

“I’m sorry you had to take care of me, I hadn’t had a drink in such a long time… I’m not used to liquors anymore”

“It’s not a problem, actually it was best for me, as Junmyeon and Sehun started making out as soon as you started throwing up” Minseok replied “If it wasn’t you it would have been Junmyeon who I would have had to take care of”

Chanyeol didn’t even blink when Minseok talked about his two friends making out, as he knew they both liked to play and have fun together, without being involved in a relationship. Chanyeol hesitated about whether to comment on the kiss or not, but finally decided to be brave.

“You didn’t have to apologize yesterday” Chanyeol said blushing “I wanted it too”

Chanyeol saw Minseok open his eyes surprised, he guessed Minseok thought he couldn’t remember, and the older blushed too, almost squirming in his seat.

“I... I just…” Minseok tried to say, but seemed to be unable to find the correct words “I shouldn’t have taken advantage on you while you were drunk”

“I don’t mind it, I told you I wanted to” Chanyeol added but he felt too awkward to say or try anything else so he got off the car “I suppose I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah” Minseok added, looking a little bit off “You have my number if you need anything”

Chanyeol looked at Minseok’s car while it got into the road again and then went to his flat. He was confused and a bit lost, but he managed to put the correct code to get inside and then he threw himself into the sofa face down. Sehun appeared from his room few minutes after.

“Hey Yeol, did you have a good night?” Sehun asked him “You didn’t come home”

“You don’t remember?” Chanyeol looked up to him and then sat properly in the sofa and Sehun just stood against the wall shaking his head “I started to throw up in the karaoke, Minseok helped me and took me to his flat as you were exploring Junmyeon’s mouth”

“I don’t remember that, I remember you leaning on Minseok shoulder and talking to him pouting and looking like a baby” Sehun replied “And I did have fun tonight, that mouth exploration lead us to my bed, and what a night”

“So Junmyeon is here?” Chanyeol asked him to ignore the rest of what Sehun said

“He left 30 minutes ago, he had to go to the same meeting as your dear Minseok, but he forgot, one of his coworkers called him this morning asking him to arrive earlier”

“Oh, well, that’s good he remembered”

“So that’s all of your night? Just throwing up?” Sehun asked him after a minute while he sat on the other couch

“Pretty much…” Chanyeol replied looking away and blushing, trying to hide a smile

“Oh, no” Sehun looked at him “Something happened, and you’re going to tell me, little bastard”

Chanyeol calculated his chances of running away from the conversation and saying nothing to Sehun. But he knew perfectly well that his friend was not going to stay calm and would end up knowing it one way or another, and he did not want to risk it. On the one hand, he preferred to keep it to himself, since Chanyeol's insecure part thought that it was something that would only happen once in a lifetime, that would never be repeated. However, on the other hand, he wanted to tell Sehun and know what he thought, to be able to share it with him and to help him understand if what he felt was deeper, and if he had any chance.

“We kissed” Chanyeol said after a minute

“Explain” Sehun said watching Chanyeol’s awkward face

“After I threw up, he kept helping me, gave me water to get the horrible flavor of my mouth and took me to a guest room, he gave me some clothes to use as pajamas, and I was too drunk to stand up, so he helped me undress. I remember not being able to move much, I was dizzy, and he took of my shirt and helped me put on another one. Then he asked me to take off my pants by myself and I did, I don’t know how, but when I tried to put on the ones he gave me I couldn’t do it correctly so he kneeled before me and helped me. The next thing I know we’re kissing”

“But that’s not, all right?” Sehun asked again, Chanyeol loved Sehun at this times because he didn’t look like that, but he was a good listener, he always encouraged him to open up so he would feel better.

“Yeah, we kissed more and next thing I remember he’s over me kissing me more and more, and then he stopped, and he got off me and then he apologized to me and wished me goodnight. I was too tired to react, and I fell asleep. Today we didn’t talk about it, but when I got off his car I told him he shouldn’t had apologized because I wanted that too, but he apologized again, saying that he took advantage on me drunk…”

“Wow, you’re a lot deeper into him than I thought you would be” Sehun said, but then added “But he looks to be also into you, so maybe you can have something with him, like, seriously”

“I don’t know, he’s too perfect to be with a mess like me” Chanyeol answered, his self-esteem lower than ever “I masturbated in his shower this morning, I’m disgusting…”

“You did what?!” Sehun asked surprised “I never imagined you doing that. Me? Yes. But you? You’re too soft to do that. But hey, you’re incredible Chanyeol, mark my words, you’re the sweetest guy I know, you take a lot of care of the people you care about, and you’re amazing, look at your studies, you were the top of both your degree and master’s class!”

“I don’t know” Chanyeol said “Maybe you’re right, should I try something?”

“Hell, yeah you should, don’t let your fears get over you” Sehun said and gave him one of those pure smiles Sehun reserved only for his closest friends “Believe me, this has a future”

Chanyeol felt a lot happier with Sehun’s words, he knew it was going to be difficult, but still, he could try to have something with Minseok. He had thought about it before, making the eldest fall for him, but back then it was a vague idea of what he wanted. Now, after having tasted his lips, he knew that he wanted more, much more. Maybe he wasn't as perfect as Minseok, but as Sehun said, Chanyeol wasn’t invisible and useless as he sometimes thought. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a day earlier because I'm moving to my other residence for the school year this weekend!
> 
> I hope you're enjoying this fic!
> 
> If you would leave a comment I would really appreciate it.

_ I must stay. He left me here; _

_ Here to weep, alone, apart. _

_ No delights, no joy to cheer _

_ Or relieve my burdened heart. _

_ Can it be.' Oh, can it be? _

_ Has he quite forgotten me? _

“Deserted” (2nd part) State of Qin

Minseok was walking into the university when he got a phone call, he looked to his phone and found it was Jongdae, his best friend since he was child, who was now working in another city.

“Dae?” He asked upon answering the phone “Long time no talk, how you doing?”

“Hi Minnie, I’m okay, I just got my holidays yesterday, so I decided to check on you, how’s been going?”

“Really fine” Minseok answered “The boy I helped these past months presents his thesis next week, and now I was going to the professors meeting as we just finished exams here”

“Oh, perfect timing, I know I’m the best. Well, I’ll wait for you at the coffee shop we always go, I’ll be here for a week before going to see my parents”

“You’re here?! Sure, I’ll meet you there”

“Yeah, I just arrived, I went to your flat, but you weren’t there so I’m going to go shopping for a while, then I’ll wait for you at the coffee shop. No need to invite Kyungsoo or Jun, we’ll meet all together other day, today I just want to enjoy my baozi”

“I told you to not call me like that” Minseok replied “But yeah, have fun, I’ll text you when the meeting’s over, have fun”

Minseok hung up the call and went inside the meeting room. He got surprised because Junmyeon was there with the other teachers from their department, Minseok didn’t knew he was also coming, but he noticed his friend was walking weirdly and winced when he sat, so he imagined what happened to him the previous night. He greeted them and talked to them about the various topics of the meeting for the day, which was the closing of the academic year. When the rest of the teachers arrived, he sat down, and the meeting began. It was a boring meeting, as always, and Minseok started texting with Jongdae, who was buying clothes and sending him photos. He did not listen to much of the meeting, but thanks to that it seemed short to him.

When he finished, he stayed for a while talking to several teachers, and saw Yixing among those who had not yet left and decided to go and say hello. Yixing and the other professors who were there were the ones who would evaluate Chanyeol the following week, and Minseok did not miss the opportunity to speak wonders of Chanyeol in front of them and to comment how incredible was Chanyeol as an assistant too, and that the materials Chanyeol used were his.

Junmyeon interrupted him to say goodbye to him and said that he would call him later to talk for a while. Minseok then decided to leave too, as Jongdae was already on his way to the coffee shop and Minseok didn't like being late at all. And besides, he couldn't deny that he really wanted to see his friend again. They had not seen each other in person for almost a year and he knew there would be a lot to talk about.

When he got to the cafeteria, he immediately spotted his friend, who hadn't changed a thing in all the time they hadn't seen each other. The only change he noticed was the fact that Jongdae was no longer blonde now but had returned to his brown hair.

“So…” Jongdae started when they had their coffees “How’s it going with the boy? And I don’t mean his thesis”

“We’re close” Minseok said trying to elude the conversation that he was sure was going to take place in that moment

“Spill the tea, I’ve known you for years, I know you better than you do, and I know something happened, so… talk”

“Sometimes I regret saving you from those bullies when we were kids, If I knew I would have no privacy now just from saving you, I wouldn’t have helped you”

“You would have saved me, no matter what you say, you know it, you love me” Jongdae replied with a grin “Now spill the tea, don’t try to distract me, you know it won’t work with me”

“Okay, okay” Minseok said defeated “Junmyeon, Chanyeol his friend Sehun and I went yesterday to have dinner and to the karaoke, Junmyeon wanted to get into Sehun’s pants and we were supposed to distract Chanyeol for a while as he was stressed because of his thesis”

Minseok took a deep breath and thought about how to explain what happened to his friend, he knew Jongdae would interrupt him, so he had to be clear and simple.

“They all got drunk easily, and at one point Chanyeol was leaning on my shoulder and I may have told him that he was drunk, he denied it and started drinking a lot, then he became sick, I helped him to the bathroom and I planned on telling his friend to take him back home”

“But his friend was sucking Junmyeon on the karaoke and you got traumatized?” Jongdae asked with his typical playful cat-shaped smile

“No, they were making out, and ignored me, so I took him to my flat” Minseok said and Jongdae looked at him waiting for more

“I know you’re leaving something out, what happened at your apartment? You fucked him while he was throwing up?”

“You’re such an idiot, no, obviously no!” Minseok replied “He threw up more at home, and I helped him later, got him tons of water to take out the horrid flavor, and got him some clothes. By the way, I let him use your pajama pants, they were a bit longer than mines, and the boy is pretty tall”

“I don’t care, and you know that, I don’t use pajamas” Jongdae dismissed it “Now, back to the kid”

“He couldn’t get undressed on his own”

“Oh yeah, this is the kind of shit I wanted to hear” Jongdae interrupted him “Sorry, keep going”

“I took his shirt off, and well, he’s pretty fit, I tried not to touch much so I got him dressed quickly, but then… I couldn’t take off his pants… That would have been… too much”

“I know you like undressing your partners with your mouth, I don’t see the problem” Jongdae said

“He’s not my partner, he’s my student”

“Only till next week, and you’re not helping him on his thesis anymore, he submitted it already, you can fuck him all you want” Jongdae said with his typical shameless attitude

“Shut up slut” Minseok told him jokingly “I told him to take off his pants, and he did, but when he tried to put the pajama ones on… He couldn’t, so I helped him”

“Don’t tell me, you kneeled before him and his dick was standing out looking delicious and you couldn’t help yourself and you gave it a head”

“No, you know I won’t do that, he was drunk” Minseok answered “I helped him, but when I looked up, he was looking at me all flushed and cute and I kissed him”

“That’s it? Only a kiss?” Jongdae asked him “Then why do you look as if you killed someone?”

“He was drunk, he reciprocated the kiss only because he was drunk, no matter what he said, he can’t be sure of why he kissed me back”

“So, he said something, explain” Jongdae said with a serious face, Minseok knew Jongdae wasn’t going to make jokes anymore.

“Maybe I apologized to him last night after the kiss, for taking advantage on him, and he told me today that he also wanted to kiss me, and I shouldn’t have apologized”

“Minseok…” Jongdae said pinching his nose “Chanyeol told you that he wanted to kiss you too, and you’re confused and feeling guilty for kissing him? You know, he may have been drunk, but I’m sure he wouldn’t have let you help him or take him to your flat if he didn’t trust you, and he wouldn’t have let you undress him, he told you he wanted to kiss you back, he likes you too”

“You know me Jongdae…”

“And because I know you I know you like him more than you want to actually admit, I’m sure you realized that you like him, but you’re an insecure bitch who would not make a move until the kid does, and that kid looks shy as hell, yeah, he had guts, he basically told you he likes you back, and you still think he doesn’t like you! Hey, wait this stupid week and when he has already passed go and take him out on a date, court him, but please, be yourself, not an insecure child who fears being rejected, because you won’t be rejected”

“I will try” Minseok replied “But now, talk me about you, how’s been your life, anything new?”

“Well, you know me and my job, I work every day 10 hours with a computer, then I go out, have a beer with my coworkers and then at home I watch TV till I fall asleep, my life is boring”

“That’s not true, how about the guy you told me about the last time we talked, you’re still dating?”

“Nope, he wanted a serious relationship, so we tried for a month, but then I caught him fucking a girl in an alley behind the bar we went, I told him to get his dick away from me now that I’ve seen it inside a pussy”

“I told you he was an idiot” Minseok said “He had a long history of cheating, you knew it was going to happen”

“And I didn’t care, I would have been okay with an open relationship, but he didn’t want one, he didn’t want me fucking with other people, but he wanted to fuck other people, that was the problem”

They kept talking for a while and then decided to go get lunch outside as their coffees were finished already. Jongdae kept telling him some things about his almost non-existent love life. Minseok listened carefully, saying nothing, because he knew that Jongdae was not looking for someone to give him solutions, but someone to let him vent.

They ate at a restaurant in the area and then the two returned, each with their car, to Minseok’s apartment. Minseok helped Jongdae carry his suitcase up as the other said that he could not lift it as it was too heavy.

Jongdae was going to stay in the guest room that Chanyeol had slept in the night before, and Minseok immediately started cleaning it by changing the sheets and cleaning everything, due to his obsession with cleaning.

Jongdae and Minseok sat at the sofa and watched a movie. Jongdae fell asleep halfway through the movie and Minseok took a blanket and put it over his friend. Junmyeon called him at that moment, and Minseok went into his room to not wake up his friend.

“Hey Jun” Minseok greeted him

“Hey Min, I’m sorry I didn’t stay with you, but I went directly from Sehun’s flat to the meeting and I didn’t had time to shower…”

“It’s okay, I hope you had fun last night” Minseok answered “Also, Jongdae came today, he’s staying for a week”

“Jongdae?” Junmyeon asked surprised “I haven't heard anything from here for a whole year, how’s he doing?”

“We can all meet up someday this weekend, he’ll leave the day before Chanyeol’s presentation, we can go have some beers”

“I like that idea” Junmyeon said “By the way, how was your night with Chanyeol?”

“You mean the night of taking care of him while he threw up?” Minseok asked sarcastically but then softened his voice “Actually, it was great, we kissed”

“Oh wow, I didn’t imagine that, when did he became sick? I don’t remember that…” Junmyeon said and added “And I told you two would end up together”

“We’re not together, we just kissed” Minseok replied “And he became sick while Sehun was absorbing your soul from your mouth, he could be a doctor, because I’m sure he checked all your body too”

Minseok could imagine Junmyeon blushing from his silence on the phone. He smiled, he knew they hadn’t had anything serious in between them, but Minseok also knew they would end up together, because Junmyeon was more into serious relationships, and it looked like Sehun and Junmyeon had spent a lot of time playing already.

“I don’t remember that” Junmyeon said after a while “I’m sorry we didn’t help you”

“No problem, I imagined you weren’t paying any attention as you didn’t even realize we were gone” Minseok pointed “And I want to ask you something, I’m curious, Sehun’s dick, is really big right? This morning you were limping”

“Oh my god, it was that obvious?” Junmyeon asked

“Yeah, your Oh Sehun god” Minseok playfully answered “But answer my question, how big is he? I need to know if height also goes proportional to dick, not that mine is small, but you never know…”

“I can’t believe you’re asking me this, but it’s true, when you have confidence, you’re a dick” Junmyeon replied frustrated “And yes, his dick is really big, and perfect, he made me scream”

“I know you’re dying of embarrassment right now Jun”

“Shut up, like you’re better than me…” Junmyeon replied “So you’re going to do as I told you and try something with Chanyeol?”

“I guess I’ll try?” Minseok rhetorically asked

“Well that’s something” Junmyeon replied “I know he likes you, so obviously this is going to work out”

“You know? What do you mean by that?” Minseok asked him

“He follows you like a puppy and listens to your words as if you were a prophet, I’m pretty sure that if you appeared naked in front of him he would start to drool immediately” Junmyeon replied “It’s obvious he likes you, and if you kissed yesterday I suppose he confessed right? Or did you confess?”

“Nothing like that happened” Minseok said and then explained, again the whole situation to Junmyeon, he was getting bored of having to remember every time what happened, because he didn’t want to give it more importance. “I kissed him, he was drunk, I shouldn’t have done that”

“Oh, please Minseok, stop it, I know you have very strong morals, but you didn’t do anything wrong” Junmyeon scolded him “And I’m sure he kissed back so he wanted too. And also, there’s only one week let till he ends his studies, that’s all, you can kiss him, fuck him or date him as much as you want”

“I know, I know” Minseok replied, he was going to say something else, but Jongdae appeared in his room “Jun, I have to hung up, Jongdae woke up from his nap”

“Like if he was a child…” Junmyeon answered sarcastically “I’ll message you to see when we can meet, and I’m telling all of this to Kyungsoo, as I know you won’t want to explain it again”

“Okay” Minseok replied with a sigh “Bye Jun”

Minseok hung up the call and looked at Jongdae who was yawning leaning against the door frame of his room.

“You shouldn't think that hard about that, you know everything’s okay” Jongdae told him “So take off that depressed hamster face and let's go for a walk around here, I need to wake up completely or I won't sleep at all tonight”

They walked down the street talking a little about the things they both normally did and their vacation plans. Minseok discussed the idea of going to see Luhan and Jongdae frowned. Minseok knew that Jongdae did not see very well that he had such a close relationship with his ex, especially since although they ended up well, Minseok suffered a lot from the separation. Jongdae however did not say anything on the subject, and simply commented on the plans he had. Jongdae had planned to go see his family and then go to Japan for a couple of weeks of tourism, something he had wanted to do for several years.

The rest of the week Jongdae stayed there was spent touring the city and hanging out with Junmyeon and Kyungsoo. From Kyungsoo, Minseok he received the same talk Junmyeon and Jongdae had given him. Kyungsoo however was more direct in saying that he had nothing to lose by being with him, because they both liked each other. Minseok eventually accepted that it could be true, and during that week he kept in touch with Chanyeol by message daily. Although it was only a "Good morning" and "Good night" because Chanyeol was reviewing all the aspects that he had to present for his thesis.

Jongdae helped him plan a first date with Chanyeol. The idea was very simple, it was just going together to Minseok’s favourite coffee shop, where they had many desserts and it was a cozy place. And then stroll down the Han River until the time for the fireworks, which started the day after Chanyeol's presentation. It was a very cheesy date by Jongdae's standards, but he believed it was perfect for someone like Minseok who was very detailed and dedicated. Minseok on his own prepared other options in case the weather was bad, or there were any mishaps. He wasn't planning to ask him out on the first date, but maybe after the third date it would be the best time to do it. He didn't want to speed things up, though they certainly had been unconsciously fooling around with each other for almost six months. Minseok admitted that changing his shirt when he got home in front of Chanyeol was not something done innocently.

The day Jongdae left came very quickly, and even more so the day of Chanyeol's presentation. He sent Chanyeol a message that morning wishing him good luck and saying that he would be waiting with Sehun, Kyungsoo and Junmyeon at the door of the university to celebrate that it was finally over. Minseok looked more nervous than Chanyeol himself, according to Sehun, as they waited outside. However, it was Yixing who came out first and greeted them with his typical clueless smile.

“Everything went okay” Yixing told them “But I accidentally spilled my coffee over his shirt, so he is changing in the bathroom”

“Thank you Yixing” Junmyeon told him

“Well, I must go, I have to prepare everything to go back to China” Yixing added “Oh, Minseok, if things with Luhan doesn’t work out feel free to call me, I know a few good places where you can stay and some places you’d love to visit”

Minseok thanked him, and Yixing left and they waited for Chanyeol who appeared with a big smile with a bag on his hand where he had his dirty shirt. Chanyeol run to them and he hugged Minseok tight, lifting him off the ground and going around with Minseok unable to touch the ground.

"Thank you very much for everything hyung" Chanyeol said and gave him a kiss on the lips, surprising everyone present.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're reaching the end of this story, there's only two more chapters...  
> I hope you're all liking the story and leave some comments if you want! They will be very much appreciated!!

_ Why stint and spare?'—for surely it were best _

_ With wine and dainties to prolong the day ; _

_ To cheer the hours and give to mirth a zest _

_ So take your lute and sing a merry lay. _

“Carpe Diem” (verse 4) Land of Tang

After the euphoric moment Chanyeol released Minseok and realized what he had done. Minseok was completely red looking at him in surprise, and the rest were in shock. Chanyeol also blushed to the ears, he had done it without much thought and now he was embarrassed by what he had done.

"Sorry" Chanyeol said and the rest woke up from their shock "I was very excited, everything went very well, except for my shirt"

"Yixing told us" Kyungsoo replied, being the first to wake up from shock "He also told us that you did a great job, congratulations"

“Yeah, congratulations Chanyeol” Junmyeon added “I knew you could do it”

“Congrats Yeol” Sehun said “Now you can make up all the lost sleep”

“Congratulations Chanyeol” Minseok said “Now you’re no longer a student, another era of your life opens up right now”

Chanyeol smiled at Minseok who smiled back. The younger couldn’t hold his excitement, he couldn’t believe he had finished his thesis, and the professors told him it was perfect, his 5 years of work were finally worthy, now he was free. He had nothing planned to do now that he had free time, but he had one thing clear, he wanted to thank Minseok for all the help he had given him.

They moved and went to eat at a Korean barbecue restaurant as a celebration. The conversation was pleasant, and the food was delicious. But what Chanyeol enjoyed the most was being next to Minseok and being able to talk to him and relax by his side.

The last week they had barely spoken, only greeting each other in the morning and then a "Good night" and Chanyeol learnt that an old friend from Minseok had come to see him, and the oldest had been busy with him.

Chanyeol had missed seeing him in the morning, eating together and talking about any nonsense, seeing him change his shirt when he got to his apartment, and being able to just be by his side.

Perhaps because he had missed him, it was that he had thrown himself into his arms as soon as he saw him and had kissed him, although blaming the fact that he had just passed his thesis was a good reason. Chanyeol was very happy and could not stop smiling, he felt fulfilled, he had managed to pass his doctorate and now he was sitting with the people he loved the most besides his family.

Minseok looked at him as they ate, the rest talking among themselves, and Chanyeol felt one of Minseok's hands on his leg, and the older one was smiling at him. Chanyeol almost choked on it but managed to survive. Minseok's hand did not move while they were eating, and repeatedly caressed him. Chanyeol did not want to complain, he liked that hand there, the heat emanating from Minseok's hands made him feel butterflies in his stomach. “I wanted to ask you” Minseok told him while the rest were paying their lunch, as they invited them, Minseok waiting with him, having already given the money to Kyungsoo “Would you like to go out on a date with me tomorrow? I know maybe you prefer to rest at home after all this stressful week, but I thought we could hang out and do something relaxing”

Chanyeol felt his ears redden, and surely his face was flushed too. He had been dreaming about this moment for a while, Minseok asking him for a date. He bit his lip and saw Minseok stare at his lip as well, and lick his own, as if he wanted to taste them, and he almost trembled with anticipation. I wanted to kiss Minseok, but he knew it was not the best time, the other was waiting for his answer.

“Yeah, sure, I would love to” He said almost stuttering “Just text me when and where, I have no plans for tomorrow”

"Sure! I'll come pick you up ”Minseok told him and then the rest arrived.

They all went together for a few beers and played billiards for a while. Chanyeol was exceptionally good at playing, so he decided to show off his skills, beating Sehun. Then they played by teams, and as if it was done on purpose, he played with Minseok. The older one was pretty good at playing, and Sehun and Junmyeon didn't stand a chance since Sehun was pretty bad at this game. Kyungsoo looked at everything from the outside and was counting the points, but after two games in a row won by the team of Minseok and Chanyeol he decided to sympathize with Junmyeon and played with him instead of Sehun, and managed to win the game narrowly.

They sat down for a drink again, and started talking about Jongdae, Minseok's friend, who Chanyeol discovered was also friends with Kyungsoo and Junmyeon, and was curious, so he listened well, despite the fact that Minseok's hand was back on his leg and he was distracted by how good it felt.

"It still amazes me that you put up with Jongdae with how annoying he can be at times" Kyungsoo said "On top of that he was sleeping in your flat with you, I would not be able to bear him 24/7, he speaks very loudly and barely keeps quiet"

"It is not as bad as you say" Minseok replied "Also when he is at home he does not really talk as much, and well, we have known each other since we were little, I am used to him"

"Still, Jongdae hated Luhan, I don't understand how you could stand him back then, I'm sure he spent the day bothering you two” Junmyeon added "He spent a lot of time here at that time, how did Luhan put up with him?"

"Luhan ignored him as if he were part of the background" Minseok said laughing "Jongdae spent the day making fun of him and I was the one who ended up having to scold Jongdae as if he were a little boy. Luhan had more patience than a saint"

Chanyeol was confused, he didn't know who Luhan was, and neither did Sehun, and they were both dying to know who he was, and why he was so important to Minseok.

"Who's Luhan?" Sehun asked directly, and Chanyeol swallowed hard.

"An ex of Minseok’s" Kyungsoo replied "From about 4 years ago" Chanyeol frowned and the rest chuckled.

"I think it's best if we don't talk about it," Junmyeon said trying not to laugh at Chanyeol's face. The minor looked at Minseok with a frown, as if he wanted to ask something but not knowing what to ask.

They changed the subject and Chanyeol thanked that, he knew nothing of Minseok's love life, and it didn't bother him, he had no reason or need to worry about it. But he was still curious, Minseok's tone talking about Luhan was warm, nostalgic. Chanyeol wanted to know Minseok's story, although he knew that to do so, perhaps he also had to tell his story.

At dinner time he returned home with Sehun, Junmyeon took them by car, while Minseok approached Kyungsoo to his apartment, since they lived nearby. Chanyeol and Sehun had dinner while watching a film and Chanyeol went to bed early as he was really tired, he woke up that morning at 5 a.m. to give a last look to his notes for the presentation, and the night before he went to bed at 2 a.m.

Minseok messaged him a “Good Night, see you tomorrow at 5 p.m.” while he was getting into bed and he had a good feeling for the next day. That night Chanyeol slept better than ever, he did not remember his dreams when he woke up, but he felt that they had been good because he felt rested and relaxed. Chanyeol couldn't help but be excited by the date with Minseok that afternoon, so as soon as he got up, he went to the kitchen happy and decided to prepare some toast to accompany his coffee. A capsule machine coffee because he did not know how to prepare coffee.

When Sehun entered the kitchen he was quietly singing bits of a song he remembered hearing on the radio. He was excited and even Sehun's bad mood from every morning couldn't bother him.

As he was happy, he spent the morning picking up his room and putting away everything he had used for his thesis, and then he took all the clothes out of his closet to choose an outfit.

Sehun found him staring at his clothes at lunchtime.

"What? Looking for an outfit for your date?"

"Yes, I'm not sure what to wear" Chanyeol replied

"You remind me of a horny teenager, and you have no tits" Sehun replied "Put on the torn black pants and the white shirt, then wear your leather jacket, you will be sensual, Minseok  _ hyung  _ will fall at your feet"

Chanyeol didn't want to admit it, but he was going to listen to his friend. Sehun knew a lot about fashion and combining clothes, he looked like a model. They ate something simple that Chanyeol prepared, using his poor cooking skills, and Chanyeol went into the shower right after. When he came out, he hurried to dry and get dressed, even put on a little cologne. And he let Sehun do his hair because the bastard knew how to fix the normally untamable mat on his head.

At 4:30 Chanyeol was sitting on the couch groomed and nervously waiting for Minseok to appear. Sehun was in his pajamas, lying on the couch since today he had no rehearsals, laughing at him while pretending to watch television. Chanyeol moved his leg from nervousness and imagined a thousand scenes of things that could happen, although his most recurring was that of Minseok kissing him again, which he sincerely wished would happen.

At 4:50 he received a message from Minseok, and Chanyeol was too nervous to even look at his phone, and it was Sehun who took his cell phone and forced him to get up because Minseok was already downstairs waiting for him. Sehun wished him good luck and closed the door on his face, forcing Chanyeol to swallow his nerves and go down to see Minseok. Chanyeol knew that he looked handsome, but he did not imagine that Minseok would look even more handsome than usual.

The older one wore leather pants that fit in all the right places and wore a matching black shirt with the top buttons unbuttoned. Also Chanyeol thought he looked too hot to be real with his hair brushed to one side.

“You look so handsome” Minseok told him with a sweet smile that contrasted too perfectly with his hot image “Get into the car, it’s a short ride”

Chanyeol felt that he couldn't speak, the situation seemed more and more unreal, and he couldn't stop his thoughts from being, every time he looked at Minseok, lewder. The older one got into the car and put on sunglasses, and Chanyeol almost drooled. He swallowed hard and got into the car after him.

“You look really handsome hyung” Chanyeol managed to say

“Thank you” The older answered “Did you had a good rest?”

“Yeah, I slept 8 hours, I feel all refreshed” Chanyeol answered, feeling more comfortable now that they were talking the way they used too “And you hyung?”

“Kyungsoo ended up staying in my place for dinner, and we watched a film, so I went to bed a little later than I planned, but I slept the usual for me”

“You have problems sleeping?” Chanyeol asked curious

“Yeah, I’ve had insomnia for quite a few years, but I’m used to it” Minseok replied “That’s why I always stay late at university grading papers, and that’s why Junmyeon complains so much about me working too much. But I have more time than others to work”

“Still, you shouldn’t work that much, you already do more than any teacher I had did” Chanyeol told him “You should have more time to relax”

“I have my moments to relax at night, reading on my bed what I want, or on weekends, lying on my sofa watching films or hanging out with friends”

They continued chatting until they reached the site, Minseok parked and guided Chanyeol to a cafeteria. They went inside and Minseok took him to a table in the back that had some very comfortable sofas, there they ordered two cups of coffee and two pieces of cake from a friendly waitress, and they continued talking.

Chanyeol got to know Minseok even better than he already did. Minseok told him several anecdotes from his days as a student, and others from his childhood. He told him how he met Jongdae and in the same way Chanyeol told him how he met Sehun. In the middle of the afternoon, however, Chanyeol dared to ask him about Luhan.

“Luhan was my ex” Minseok started talking “I met him when I was about to start my first year on the doctorate, he was studying also, his second master’s degree. He was Chinese but he spoke Korean perfectly, we got along very well, he was clingy, and we had the same hobbies and many things in common. We started dating soon, I guess we liked the idea of being with each other too much to not start dating, it was a comfortable relationship, but we weren’t that deeply in love as we thought we were. After a year and a half we broke up, there was no passion or love between us, we had been half of our relationship more friends than boyfriends. Luhan liked to make decisions that affected both of us all by himself, and he decided to go back to China. He thought I would go along with him, but sure I wasn’t going anywhere, I had to finish my doctorate and I had ambitions here. So we broke up, we still continued to be friends, we usually call each other every month. But after all this time I realized I didn’t love him, we were just needy, and we mistook true friendship as love”

Chanyeol let him speak without interrupting him. He understood as he spoke why Minseok had that nostalgic tone when he spoke of Luhan. They were things that happened, although it was certainly sad. However Minseok didn't let him feel bad for asking that. And he quickly animated the conversation by changing the subject. When the coffee and sweets were over Minseok suggested going for a walk.

Minseok guided him through several streets and took him to the bank of the Han river. The views were very beautiful and the weather very good, it was hot, but a soft cold breeze made the day perfect for a walk along the riverbank. Minseok discreetly took his hand as they walked and Chanyeol blushed, they talked a bit in the meantime, but most of all they enjoyed the weather and each other's company. Chanyeol squeezed Minseok’s hand in his, Minseok's hand was smaller than Chanyeol's, and his heart warmed and beat faster at this. Chanyeol couldn't stop thinking about how idyllic everything was, how Minseok took his hand, how they walked together calmly and without worries, and how it seemed that the mere presence of the elder beside him was all he needed.

In the end they ended up sitting on the grass on the edge of the river. Minseok leaned on Chanyeol and they were both talking quietly about themselves, wanting to get to know each other better. He doesn't know how, but Chanyeol ended up hugging Minseok, the latter sitting between his legs, both watching the sunset. When the sun disappeared, they still didn't move, the weather got colder, but they just snuggled closer to each other and continued to enjoy the sky as they talked.

At one point the first firework sounded, and Chanyeol was shocked. After that, more and more followed, and Chanyeol remembered then that there was a fireworks festival those days. They both looked at the sky one against the other and enjoyed the view.

Minseok moved a little then and looked at him, Chanyeol also stared into Minseok's eyes, and, just like the first time, they started kissing without knowing who started the kiss. They both closed their eyes and Chanyeol let all his senses focus on Minseok, Minseok kissing him, Minseok's lips, Minseok's warmth. He opened his lips inviting the oldest to sneak in between them, and the kiss became hotter. Their tongues touched and intertwined. They stopped several times to breathe, but they kissed again and again, exploring each other's mouth as if trying to memorize it.

Chanyeol felt like he was never going to get tired of Minseok's lips, his heart was racing and the butterflies in his stomach fluttered loudly. Chanyeol's mind was unable to stop thinking about those incredible sensations that the older one produced on him, and he moved one of his hands to Minseok's neck to deepen the kiss. Minseok bit his lip and then sucked on it, his kisses were getting too hot to be in public. They stopped and stood close looking into each other's eyes. Chanyeol felt as if he could get lost in the vastness of emotions that floated in Minseok's eyes, he had never seen such beautiful and expressive eyes.

“The fireworks ended” Minseok said then stuttering and looking nervous, Chanyeol couldn’t stop himself from enjoying the sight of Minseok’s lips all swollen from the kiss and her flushed cheeks. “What are you looking at?”

“You hyung” Chanyeol replied “You look too pretty between my arms”

Chanyeol didn't know where he had got the courage to say that, but he felt fulfilled when Minseok blushed more and hid his face in his chest, all nervous and flushed. Chanyeol then felt that he was seeing a new facet of Minseok that he had never met before, and that he loved. A Minseok who was insecure in intimate situations, who blushed, and his voice trembled, who was too tender and precious.

They stayed a long time like that, Minseok in Chanyeol's arms, kissing each other and looking at the starry sky or talking. They were both very comfortable and they both knew they wanted to repeat. The night became colder and Minseok then, much calmer and returning to being the typical Minseok, said that it was time to return everyone home. Chanyeol agreed when he saw Minseok shiver from the cold, on the banks of the river the temperature was lower. He took off his jacket and put it on Minseok's shoulders, then took his hand. And they walked back to the car together in a comfortable silence.

The way to Chanyeol's apartment was also smooth, Chanyeol took the opportunity to tell him how much he liked the date and to thank him again for his help. When they arrived, they both kept still on the car looking at each other, and then Minseok talked.

“I liked spending this afternoon with you Chanyeol, if you allow me, I will want to repeat”

“I would love to” Chanyeol answered and they both leaned to kiss again. It was a smooth kiss, their lips meeting without deepening the kiss. They both separated and looked to each other. Then Chanyeol opened the car’s door and got out. “Message me when you get home hyung, I hope to see you soon”

“I’ll message you, sleep well” Minseok replied and then Chanyeol closed the car’s door and watched Minseok go away.


	9. Chapter 9

_ The moon's clear lamp is shining bright. _

_ Her beams illuminate the night. _

_ My words are feeble to express _

_ Your beauty, charms, or sprightliness. _

_ Have mercy. Tranquillize my heart, _

_ Remove love's fetters, heal love's smart _

“A love song” Country of Chen

The first date was followed by many more. The friends of both said that they were disgusted with how sweet they were with each other, and how slow they were taking the time of courtship. Minseok discovered that Chanyeol was a much more hyperactive and talkative person, and that he loved to whisper sweet things in his ear that embarrassed him and made him blush. Minseok knew he wanted to have a relationship with Chanyeol, and he knew Chanyeol wanted the same thing, but neither seemed to know when the right time to start it would be.

In one of his many appointments, Minseok decided to tell him about his idea of going to China on vacation. He told him that his intention had initially been to go see Luhan and go sightseeing, but that he had changed his mind.

“Why? You had another idea for holidays?” Chanyeol asked him

“Yeah, I would like to go, with my boyfriend, to China” Minseok told him and then looked at him to see his reaction

“That’s great” Chanyeol replied and playfully added “But you don’t have a boyfriend to go with”

“Yeah, that’s a big problem, but I think I know how to solve it” Minseok told him and gave him a peck “Would you like to be my boyfriend Chanyeol?”

Minseok watched Chanyeol open his eyes as if he was surprised and then smiled .

“How could I not want to be the boyfriend of such a beautiful and incredible guy like you?” Chanyeol replied “Of course I want to be your boyfriend”

Minseok's eyes sparkled and he threw himself into the arms of his now boyfriend. Chanyeol kissed Minseok and they started a make out session on the sofa in Minseok's house. The two looked into each other's eyes as they parted and Minseok whispered "I like you" in his ear. After a lot of kissing and whispering cringy things at each other Minseok spoke again.

“Would you like to go to China with me?”

“Of course, I’ve never been to China, what a better timing to go than with my cute boyfriend?” Chanyeol replied smiling “But I don’t know Chinese, so I hope you know some, or we have a translator there”

“I can ask Yixing” Minseok said “He’s the one who will organize our little trip”

“I like the idea” Chanyeol said “Yixing will help us”

The next day they announced their new relationship to the rest of their friends, and everyone congratulated them, even Jongdae forced Minseok to make a video call to congratulate them both and to threaten Chanyeol not to harm his beloved Minseok.

During the week they contacted Yixing and he was delighted to find them accommodation and create a travel plan, accompanying them to places where without a translator it would be impossible to move. Minseok also, along with Chanyeol, called Luhan and told him about their new relationship and about the trip they were planning to make, and Luhan contacted Yixing to help him organize everything, and offered his help as a guide with Yixing.

Chanyeol and Minseok felt like inside a bubble preparing everything and were shocked when Chanyeol finally got his doctorate diploma. That night they celebrated it with their friends at a restaurant and partied afterwards.

This time already knowing that Chanyeol was not a good drinker, Minseok helped him control himself, drinking the glasses that his friends, with their not at all good intentions, did not stop serving him. Chanyeol still got drunk, but not into the sick level of the last time. Chanyeol was really clingy when drunk, and even if they were in a bar, Chanyeol stayed half of the time sat over Minseok making out with him and touching wherever he could reach over Minseok’s clothes. Minseok, as the most sober one of the two tried to keep things at bay, but Chanyeol wasn’t making it easy for him, and this time he was also a bit drunk, and his control was slipping too and he slipped a hand under Chanyeol’s shirt touching his abs.

Chanyeol trembled at the touch of Minseok's hand and bit the earlobe of the older one, making him moan softly, but enough for Chanyeol to hear him. Minseok continued exploring Chanyeol’s chest and pinched one of his nipples, getting a moan from Chanyeol too. He continued playing and getting hotter, but Kyungsoo suddenly stopped them.

“I think you both forgot where are you at” Kyungsoo told him “Just go home and continue as you want, but spare me from watching you all horny here, I have enough with Sehun and Junmyeon”

They both sat properly with their hands still together and looked at the other two, Sehun was kissing Junmyeon and Junmyeon was moving his hand over Sehun’s thighs. Chanyeol and Minseok laughed and Kyungsoo looked at them as if they could save him. It was true he was the only one without a partner there, but he already told them he didn’t mind, but certainly Kyungsoo didn’t expect to be third wheeling for both couples.

“I’m sorry Kyungsoo, we left you alone” Minseok said

“I don’t mind it that much, but people were looking, and I felt too outcasted and I know at least you too have enough mind to stop, this two might end fucking in the bathrooms with how drunk they are right now”

“I think they’ve done that already” Chanyeol replied and after a few seconds, in which Kyungsoo and Minseok looked at him with a questioning glance, added “Sehun told me some things I would have preferred not knowing”

After a while they all decided to go home, and Minseok dragged Chanyeol to his place, with a clear idea in his mind on what he wanted to do that night. They had only been dating properly for two weeks, but they already spent more than six months teasing and flirting, so Minseok wanted to go a step further, and he knew, as he talked about that recently with Chanyeol, that he wanted too. They took a taxi and got into Minseok’s flat quickly.

As soon as they entered the apartment, Minseok kissed Chanyeol against the door. He took off the jacket he was wearing and kicked them off trying not to stop kissing him and Chanyeol just as eager as he did the same.

Chanyeol was the one who moved them through the entrance to the older boy's bedroom and kissed him again against the door, slipping his hands under Minseok's shirt. Minseok moaned as Chanyeol squeezed one of his nipples with his fingers and forced Chanyeol to remove his shirt. Once removed, Minseok let his hands touch every part of Chanyeol's chest, he took his time outlining Chanyeol’s abs with his fingers, and started kissing all the exposed skin, he left some love marks all over his chest, and then licked one of Chanyeol's nipples.

Chanyeol moaned and forced Minseok to take his shirt off too, moving to the bed and sitting with Minseok all over him licking his nipples and biting them softly getting more and more of those little moans that escaped Chanyeol’s mouth.

Chanyeol spun them around, going over Minseok and being the one to suck and bite all the exposed skin this time. Chanyeol had already confessed to Minseok how much he liked to leave marks on his skin, as evidenced by the hickeys on his neck, but this time Chanyeol did not plan to leave any skin unmarked.

He started at Minseok's neck, kissing, and sucking at the places he knew drove Minseok crazy and enjoying all the moans that the shorter let out from his lips. He went down his chest leaving bite marks and stopped at his nipples, biting, and sucking on one while he squeezed the other with his fingers and stroked it, making Minseok wriggle underneath him from pleasure.

Minseok did not stand still despite the pleasure he received, but instead moved one of his hands to the bulge of Chanyeol's pants, and with the other he grabbed the minor's hair, prompting him to continue. Minseok stroked Chanyeol's bulge a bit and then with difficulty unbuttoned his pants and reached inside, this time touching over the briefs, getting a groan from Chanyeol over his nipples that made him continue his caresses.

Chanyeol went down to his stomach and kissed there making Minseok giggle a bit. He continued his way down leaving bit marks and licking all the skin he could reach. Minseok squirmed under him and Chanyeol smirked.

Chanyeol unbuttoned Minseok's pants and took them off his boyfriend, leaving him only in his underwear. Minseok then forced him to take off his pants too, and they both took off their underpants too, getting naked. They both looked at each other and both blushed when they felt watched.

“You’re beautiful” Chanyeol told Minseok with a deep voice.

Minseok moaned instead of answering, they were both hard and Minseok felt as he couldn’t wait to continue, to taste Chanyeol and to have him inside him. Minseok forced Chanyeol to sit on the edge of the bed and positioned himself between his legs. The younger opened his legs to the maximum knowing what Minseok wanted to do, touching his face with one hand and making him look at him to give him a tender kiss that stood out with the warmth of the situation for how sweet it was.

Minseok took Chanyeol's cock in his hand, enjoying the heat it emanated and approaching to leave kisses on the tip. Chanyeol hissed at this and stared as Minseok gave him a little lick like it was his first time. Minseok then continued to lick Chanyeol's length, this time from base to tip, stopping at the head and at the hole there.

Minseok continued to lick his cock and then put the tip into his mouth, moaning because of the taste, which he liked. Then he put everything he could into his mouth and took it out leaving only the tip inside and licking that area well with his tongue. He repeated this action several times, shoving Chanyeol's dick into his mouth and then focusing on the tip, feeling powerful at having Chanyeol moaning at his attentions.

The younger stopped him after a while, not wishing to come so quickly and wanting to see Minseok come undone with his cock inside. He moved Minseok into the middle of the bed and kissed him deeply, biting his lips before breaking the kiss.

“Where do you have your lube and condoms?” Chanyeol asked Minseok

“First drawer” He answered “But no condom, we’re clean, we took the tests together, please”

Chanyeol took the lubricant from the drawer and quickly wet three of his fingers with the substance. He kissed Minseok’s body as he descended and Minseok spread his legs to make things easier. Chanyeol kissed the inside of his thighs making Minseok sigh and moved one of his fingers to the entrance of Minseok encircling his rim and teasing him before getting it inside slowly.

Minseok hissed at the first feeling but the relaxed when Chanyeol started touching his dick. Chanyeol then started moving his finger in and out and then added a second finger. Minseok hissed again at the pain and Chanyeol started licking his cock at the same time he moved his fingers inside him. Chanyeol opened and closed them inside him moving them in circles stretching Minseok's entrance slowly, Minseok began moaning louder and Chanyeol added a third finger.

He kept licking and sucking Minseok's cock to distract him from the initial pain and stretched Minseok's entrance more moving them in and out looking for that spot inside Minseok that would make him scream from pleasure. Minseok suddenly arched his back as he touched his prostate with his fingers and screamed his name. Chanyeol decided that he loved the way his name sounded in Minseok’s lips when he screamed from pleasure.

After a little bit more of teasing Chanyeol couldn’t hold it anymore and he got his fingers out of his boyfriend. He watched as Minseok's entrance opened and closed around nothing, as if crying out to be filled, and Chanyeol had no sanity left to stop.

He positioned himself on top of his boyfriend and kissed him as he slowly introduced himself. Minseok had his eyes closed and his mouth open from the initial pain, but he tried to relax with the kisses and caresses that Chanyeol gave him. After a while he got used to it and moved his hips slightly making them both moan and signal to Chanyeol that he could move now. Chanyeol began to move in and out in a slow rhythm, in case Minseok still hurt, but Minseok began to move his hips against him so that he reached deeper, letting out all the moans from his lips, of which more than the half were Chanyeol's name.

Chanyeol began to accelerate the pace of his thrusts and placed one of Minseok's legs on his shoulder to go deeper. With one of them Minseok arched his back again and Chanyeol knew that he had found his prostate and focused on targeting that same place driving Minseok crazy. He was fascinated as his length entered and exited Minseok’s entrance.

“Ah, Chanyeol, more, please!” Minseok moaned

“You’re so tight hyung”

Chanyeol accelerated his thrusts and Minseok clung to the sheets under him tightly, not knowing how to channel the incredible waves of pleasure that ran through him. They shifted and Minseok got down on all fours on the bed, spreading his legs wider looking for Chanyeol to continue where he had left off, feeling already close to his long-awaited orgasm. Chanyeol stared at Minseok being so tempting and brought his face up to Minseok's butt, and kissed his entrance and started sucking on it, eating him out.

Minseok moaned loudly against the sheets not expecting that at all. Chanyeol put his tongue past his rim and enjoyed the flavor of the strawberry lube they used, but he was close too, so he stopped and slid back inside getting a quick pace immediately.

Minseok felt almost at the limit, his arms no longer supported his weight and he found himself with his face against the sheets and his ass up as Chanyeol sank into him each time with a faster pace. He moaned Chanyeol's name loudly and Chanyeol was groaning his name too. They didn't care about their neighbors, neither about the sound of the bed hitting against the wall. The only sound they heard was each other's name and the sound of skin against skin from the thrusts.

They changed positions again, and this time Minseok positioned himself on Chanyeol taking his cock and lowering himself onto it, throwing his head back for the pleasure of being filled so much. Minseok felt full, like he had never been filled before, he sat on Chanyeol’s lap for a second, enjoying the filling of fullness, almost drooling over the sensation. Then he started moving his hips on circles, making Chanyeol moan louder, and moaning himself as the tip of Chanyeol’s cock brushed past his prostate.

Chanyeol placed his hands on Minseok's hips and helped him up and down on his cock. The older one began to pick up pace and ride Chanyeol. From that point of view Chanyeol perfectly saw his cock disappear inside his boyfriend, and that made him feel much closer to his orgasm. Minseok bounced on him and seemed to be on the edge too, so he grabbed his hips and started to ram from below with force, making Minseok scream and hold on Chanyeol's lap. Minseok felt at the verge of heaven, too close to his desired orgasm, and Chanyeol too, as Minseok tightened his entrance around his length. Chanyeol rammed even faster and Minseok tried to move down too to meet his thrusts, close to his release.

“I’m so close” Minseok announced between moans “Please Chanyeol, more, please I’m so close”

“Hyung I’m about to come too, you’re so damn tight”

Chanyeol watched as Minseok grabbed his own dick and started masturbating at the same pace of his thrusts. Minseok felt overstimulated and with one specific deep thrust he came screaming Chanyeol’s name all over his chest and Chanyeol's stomach. He kept on riding Chanyeol as much as he could through his orgasm, and the younger rammed even faster and then came with force inside him. Minseok moaned again from the feeling of being filled and then collapsed on Chanyeol’s chest.

They were both breathing heavily and Chanyeol was still inside him but drops of his cum were running down Minseok’s thighs. Minseok felt like jelly, and Chanyeol petted his head as the older listened Chanyeol’s fast heartbeat.

“It was amazing” Chanyeol told him “I really love you”

“I love you too” Minseok replied “But next time, it’s your turn”

Minseok then moved on top of Chanyeol, and his cock slipped out from inside him, Chanyeol's cum running down his legs. Minseok suddenly complained about his ass hurting and Chanyeol laughed. Even so, the older one forced him to move to the bathroom to change the sheets, and then went to the bathroom with his boyfriend to clean himself before it dried up and became too uncomfortable.

They both went back to bed after cleaning and Chanyeol snuggled into Minseok becoming once again the soft and cute guy he was. Minseok hugged him close and he watched him drift to sleep.

Minseok then started to rethink how everything ended up like that. And realized he had been stupid trying to deny the feelings he had. It was the first time in his life he felt something so deep for someone, he never felt before this overwhelming sensation he always got with Chanyeol. He hadn’t ever felt the fire burning inside him, the butterflies fluttering in his stomach, all his past relationships were only friendship or lust, he never felt love, and he never loved before, but he was sure this time, Chanyeol was the right one. He trusted his heart this time, and his heart told him to stay by Chanyeol’s side forever, that he wasn’t going to regret it.

Minseok was going to fight with anyone for this relationship, he didn’t mind the narrow-minded people who thought two men couldn’t be together, he didn’t mind if his parents accepted them. He wanted to show to the whole world that love was love, and he didn’t choose to fell in love to the soft and cute, but terribly hot at the same time, boy named Park Chanyeol, because he never thought that accepting Junmyeon’s request to helping a poor student with his PhD would end up with himself being happy, truly happy. He didn’t regret anything, he loved Chanyeol, and that was all he needed.

With that in mind Minseok held Chanyeol even closer and drifted to sleep, they had some holidays to prepare and enjoy the next weeks.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this last chapter arrived later than I planned it, but yeah, this story is finished, I hope you have enjoyed it and leave some comments if you want! That would be great!

_ In your snow-white garments you pass me by; _

_ You glitter and shine like a dragon-fly. _

_ Would you free my heart from sorrow and pain? _

_ Then come to me, never to part again. _

“A love song” Country of Tsao

Chanyeol never imagined himself being like that. A year ago he had been a stressed doctorate student unable to find what he needed for his research and complaining to his family about his block. Now he was in China on holidays with his boyfriend, who was the one who helped him through his block and with many other things. He never imagined himself being this happy one year ago, and when he got to know Minseok, he neither thought he was going to end up with him. But things worked out, and he was really thankful to Junmyeon for everything he had done for both of them. 

He looked at his boyfriend at his side. They were walking through Beijing’s streets with Luhan and Yixing as their guides. Chanyeol had discovered a good friend in Luhan too. Despite being Minseok's ex, after he told him his story, he realized that he had no reason to be jealous, and that Luhan was only a great friend of Minseok’s. From the first day they arrived in China, Luhan had helped them. He picked them up from the airport and took them to the hotel they had booked and accompanied them on sightseeing. Yixing had also been with them and accompanied them in the days that Luhan could not. Both Luhan and Yixing had saved them multiple times over the language barrier. Minseok knew how to defend himself with the most basic of Chinese, but Chanyeol could not say anything other than "thank you" and "hello".

They also had a lot of time alone. Minseok had discovered that he had a fixation for kissing and licking Chanyeol's torso, among other things, and Chanyeol never got tired of worshipping Minseok’s body in every possible way. After the first time Chanyeol fucked Minseok, many more had followed, but many of those being Minseok who sank into him driving him crazy and filling him. They didn't care who was up or down, they just wanted to love each other in every way possible.

Chanyeol also during that vacation took the mission of making Minseok start to really relax, forgetting about his job completely and enjoying their own time. Going out and playing, watching TV both lying on the sofa or kissing for hours without thinking about anything but the other.

"You make a very good couple" Luhan said to Chanyeol one day "I have never seen Minseok so relaxed and happy, I am very glad that he found someone as amazing as you"

"You know ..." Luhan continued "The time I spent with Minseok was incredible, and the truth is that I loved him as much as I could. But we were certainly too comfortable, it was not a strong and ardent love, it did not fill our hearts. Our love was platonic, not romantic. We knew each other perfectly, we knew how to read each other, but that was not love, but a strong friendship. Today I know that the love I had for him was more like brothers, and I consider Minseok as part of my family. When we broke up and returned to China, I regretted leaving him several times, but I didn't feel sorry because I was in love with him, but because I knew that the distance was hurting us, we had gotten used to being together all the time, and that hurt us"

Chanyeol listened attentively to him, he did not know what to say, but he also did not believe that it was necessary to say anything, Luhan only seemed to want to vent and turn the page.

"I learned of all his subsequent relationships, and every time he talked to me about someone new, I felt that Minseok was lost, because none of those people had love for Minseok, several cheated on him, and then Ji Yong was like me, the last ex Minseok had before you, they were more friends than a couple, because they were very similar. However, when Minseok started talking to me about you, although you two couldn’t still have nothing, and he was just your teacher, Minseok talked about you in a special way. You didn't have to do anything to make him fall in love with you, because Minseok just fell in love with all those little things you do unconsciously. He used to call me and tell me how you were doing with your thesis, and he told me about those unconscious pouts you did, the way you bit your lip when concentrated, how you listened to every word he said, and how you always helped him with a smile. That you looked very tough being that tall, but then you were a soft and tender person. He told me that you were going to help him in his classes and even stopped some stupid students from picking on Minseok.

“Sometimes I wish I had fallen in love with him. But now that I see you together, I can't imagine any other person being with Minseok, because you are perfect for him. I've seen how you look at him, you really love him, you don't just want to fuck him and then look for another person. You have not used him to finish your thesis but have accepted his help and have tried to pay him back for everything he did for you, falling in love in the process. I am very happy that you are together, so if someday you want to talk to me, you know that I appreciate you and that you can do it whenever you want”

“I don’t know what to say” Chanyeol replied after a few second “I didn’t know… Thank you Luhan, I’m glad Minseok has an amazing friend like you”

From that day on, Luhan also became closer to Chanyeol, and Minseok was pleased about it. Minseok knew that Luhan and his boyfriend had been talking about him, but he didn't care, because he trusted them both. Minseok knew clearly that even if they had not gotten along, he was not going to abandon either of them, because they both meant a lot in his life, like Junmyeon, and Jongdae above all.

On their last night in China, Minseok and Chanyeol decided to stay at the hotel and order room service for dinner, both of them quietly staying in bed next to each other. Minseok was running his fingers over Chanyeol’s chest, tracing with his fingers the marks he had left.

“I don’t want to go back” Minseok told Chanyeol “Everything has been so great here…”

“Me neither” Chanyeol answered

“I’m so happy everything went smooth” Minseok added “I’m so glad you got along with Luhan too”

“He’s a nice guy, I understand why do you appreciate him that much”

“Yeah, he is” Minseok said laying kisses over Chanyeol’s chest again “I wanted to thank you again Minseok, for everything”

“But I didn’t do anything…?” Minseok replied

“Yeah you did, because of you I managed to finish my doctorate, and also for loving me” Chanyeol started talking “Luhan told me some things about your past boyfriends, and himself, and thanked me for loving you, but I should be the one being thankful for that, because you’re the best thing ever happened to me”

“You’re also the best thing ever happened to me” Minseok replied him looking at Chanyeol’s eyes “You made me realize how wrong I was about being all alone, and you gave me so much… You became my motivation, and you showed me a world outside my work, and mostly, you loved me as what I am”

They started kissing softly at first, butterfly kisses from Minseok all over Chanyeol’s face ending with a deep kiss on his mouth. Minseok wanted to show Chanyeol how much he loved him. For Minseok, Chanyeol's lips were an addiction, he never tired of kissing them over and over again, of biting and sucking them, of their tongues brushing and fighting to dominate the kiss. Minseok didn't get tired of the taste of Chanyeol, of his smooth skin and his groans in a deep voice.

Minseok continued to kiss Chanyeol's chin, and then spread kisses down his neck, leaving a hickey on the underside of Chanyeol's ear, causing the younger one to moan louder. Minseok was motivated by it and bit the lobe of his ear, causing a similar reaction and smiling at it, he knew the weak points of Chanyeol and thought to make him delirious with pleasure.

He kept going down his chest to his nipples and kissed and bit them several times, causing Chanyeol to arch his back underneath him, to try to have more friction in his lower area. Minseok felt hotter and hotter, and as Chanyeol moved, he was also very hot. Minseok went down his stomach licking it and stopped at a wet stain on Chanyeol's underpants and sucked, they were only wearing briefs making things a lot easier. He quickly removed Chanyeol's underpants and grabbed his member with one hand while directing his mouth to his balls. He took one into his mouth and sucked, causing Chanyeol to let out a low growl.

He licked his entire length from the base to the tip and this time he didn't play, shoving all he could from Chanyeol's cock into his mouth, deep throating him. Chanyeol's hands moved to his hair and Minseok moaned with Chanyeol’s cock in his mouth, filling him with saliva and shoving it in and out of his mouth and playing with the hole at the tip. At the same time he moved his hand on what he could not take with his mouth, and Chanyeol began to fuck Minseok’s mouth from below. Chanyeol picked up the pace and Minseok almost choked on his cock. But Minseok controlled his gag reflex and continued the blowjob, enjoying the very masculine scent of that area of Chanyeol, and its taste.

Chanyeol suddenly forced him into a deep throat and kept fucking his mouth and Minseok knew he was about to come, so he relaxed his throat as much as possible. Chanyeol then came into Minseok's mouth and the older one swallowed it all, licking his lips afterwards. Chanyeol then pulled him to him and kissed him, not caring that Minseok had had his cock in his mouth, and that it still tasted like his own cum. Chanyeol stared at Minseok and saw how hard he was, he knew it must hurt. So he grabbed the bottle of lube from the nightstand and dipped three of his fingers, determined to push Minseok to the limit preparing himself.

He put one finger in first, sighing at the familiar sensation. Chanyeol liked the feeling of stretching very much, and he liked the small pleasant sting that the preparation made him feel. He immediately added a second and began to open his fingers and close them within himself. He stared at Minseok who was watching him licking his lips and touching his cock, and Chanyeol added a third, opening his mouth and letting out a soft moan. He kept stretching, staring at Minseok, and stroking his own cock, which was coming to life again, until Minseok couldn't take it anymore and pulled Chanyeol's fingers out of him and kissed him.

He quickly entered inside Chanyeol and stayed there for a few minutes, leaving the younger one to get used to the sensation. When Chanyeol gave him the go-ahead, Minseok grabbed onto his hips and began to move in a slow but strong sway. Chanyeol clutched at Minseok's arms and clawed at him and screamed with pleasure when a stronger thrust he hit his prostate. Minseok picked up the pace, knowing that neither of them was going to be able to hold on too long. Chanyeol for his recent orgasm, which he was overstimulated by, and Minseok, because watching Chanyeol prepare himself had been almost enough to come.

Minseok accelerated his thrusts upon hearing Chanyeol's moans asking for more and he felt on the verge of insanity, Chanyeol was very tight, as if he was made to take Minseok’s cock fully, and the younger also squeezed around him every time he hit his prostate, causing him to thrust even faster.

“I’m coming Minseok” Chanyeol told him between moans “I can’t… ah… I can’t hold anymore”

Minseok’s thrust became erratic as he tried to go even faster and then they both came at the same time, Chanyeol over his stomach and Minseok buried inside Chanyeol. The elder fell on Chanyeol’s chest when finished and slipped out of him. Chanyeol groaned at the sudden emptiness. They lay on top of each other for a while, until Minseok felt Chanyeol falling asleep, still dirty.

"Get up" Minseok said "Let's take a shower, and then you can sleep as much as you want"

Chanyeol growled but ended up getting up and the two went to the bathroom together. Minseok behind Chanyeol watching his run trail down the boy's legs with a smug smile.

They showered together playing with the water and fooling around and went back to bed just when someone knocked on the door. They remembered then that they had ordered dinner, and Minseok quickly put on one of the hotel robes and went to answer the door. He returned to bed with two dinner trays in his hands, and they sat down to eat on the bed.

"Today we started with dessert" Chanyeol joked "And what a dessert"

“This shouldn't become an habit” Minseok replied “I don’t think is healthy to eat at three or four a.m. just because I couldn’t stop myself from eating you over and over again”

“I could eat you for dinner from time to time” Chanyeol added “You would be the perfect full meal”

“Shut up pervert” Minseok replied him blushing

“As if you were better than me” Chanyeol pointed to all the hickeys he had all over his chest and neck

“It’s not my fault that your skin is so soft and just… lickable” Minseok defended himself “And you also left me a lot of marks”

“Your skin is too white to not leave those red love marks all over you, and you enjoyed them” Chanyeol replied

“You know I love you right?” Minseok suddenly said

“I know hyung” Chanyeol “I love you too”

They finished dinner and went to sleep, they had to return to Korea the next day.

A few months later Minseok was already preparing his classes to start the new year, and Chanyeol was going to be helping him that year with his classes officially as a professor, also having some other subjects on his own. They had decided to go live together despite the fact that they had not been together as a couple for a long time, in addition to Sehun having moved to their campus dormitory since that year they had a much more complicated schedule.

Chanyeol was going to be teaching music theory classes to first-year students at the Music degree and was also helping Minseok with his Ancient Chinese Literature classes to complete the credits he was supposed to teach.

Their relationship was going perfectly, after all the time they had known each other they were both able to understand and complement each other. Chanyeol had learned to be much more orderly with his things, now that he lived with the oldest. And Minseok was learning to live his life more and not just dedicate himself to work.

They enjoyed going to college together and teaching classes together, Chanyeol learned a lot about how to teach his students just by watching Minseok. He couldn't complain about the workload either, because Minseok was the one who did most of the work in class, except for a few days when he put Chanyeol in front and just watched.

Minseok also went to some of Chanyeol’s first classes, to help him with nervousness, and got marveled at how well Chanyeol managed it. He also had the opportunity now that they lived together to listen to him compose and sing almost daily. They had turned the guest room into a studio for Chanyeol, and they spent days in the room, usually composing music, or fucking on the piano.

Chanyeol also got the opportunity to use Minseok’s voice on some of his tracks, and a big company bought some of them. Little by little, Chanyeol became a famous composer, and many offers began to come from companies that wanted him as an exclusive composer, but Chanyeol had discovered that he liked teaching a lot and he rejected it. On his first anniversary Chanyeol took part of the savings he had from the songs he had sold and took Minseok on a trip around Asia, visiting Luhan in China and Jongdae in Japan, since he liked the country very much, and Minseok was suspicious Jongdae had someone there.

On the way back they decided to go visit Minseok's parents, and formally introduce themselves as a couple. It was not a completely pleasant experience, since the parents did not want to accept that their son was with another man, but even so they did not regret doing it. Chanyeol's parents were traveling in Europe that year so they couldn't see them and simply returned to their apartment. Chanyeol noticed that her boyfriend was quite depressed by the rejection of his parents, and he was normal, so he gave him his full support and together with Junmyeon and Kyungsoo they cheered him up.

One summer afternoon they went out on the banks of the Han River again. They walked the path of their first date and sat in the same spot. Minseok placed himself in Chanyeol's arms and they both sat there until night looking at the sky.

"Sometimes I still find it hard to believe that you are my boyfriend, and that more than a year has passed" Chanyeol said "I won the lottery"

"I'm also amazed at how fast the time goes by" Minseok said "I still remember the day you entered my office the first time. You were looking at the ground embarrassed without having any idea that I had already fallen for you at first sight"

"About that" Chanyeol said "After that meeting Kyungsoo took me home, and I might have been in love with you at first sight too"

“We were such an idiots” Minseok told him “But I don’t regret waiting, everything could have ended horrible for you if we had something, and over all the time we just flirted I also enjoyed myself”

“I knew you took off your shirt on purpose when we got to your flat” Chanyeol told him laughing “But you never knew I got off on your shower the day after our first kiss”

“Seriously?” Minseok asked surprised “That night I wanted to fuck you, but you were so drunk… It was so wrong…”

“I already told you a million times it was okay” Chanyeol replied “I wanted to, it was okay. Look, let’s do something, we go home, and show me how did you wanted to fuck me that night, let’s make a new memory”

“I like the idea, and I have another slightly better” Minseok said grinning “How about creating an album of pictures of us? So we can laugh at ourselves in the future”

“I love that mind of yours” Chanyeol replied and kissed him “And I love you”

“I love you too”

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you sou much for reading this story, please let me know if you liked it!  
> Have a very nice day


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